The Huntsman's Quarry
by ElfChef
Summary: A torrid tale of what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immoveable object, and in a single night of passion, they are bound together forever. Eric Northman is a 1,000-year-old vampire with a simple credo: 'The devil may care, but I don't.' His latest quarry is part-Fae. Her attitude: 'Catch me if you can.' Sookie has a target on her back and a chip on her shoulder.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**The Enforcer**

Sometimes the states and cities began to blur if I lingered in one place too long. I'd been in Texas a few weeks ago, but I found myself in Florida simply because I had a place by the Everglades. I had several homes all over the world; all the same, small, mundane, yet comfortable and efficient.

I needed to feed so I took my chances in a dive of a bar along my way. They didn't serve blood. In fact, I was very sure they weren't at all fang-friendly. I sat and ordered the first thing I saw on the menu. If it was a beverage or food, I couldn't tell you. I took my order and scanned the area for a potential meal.

One of my hobbies was people watching. There was something incredibly amusing about observing people when they thought no one was looking. It often brought out the absolute worst in them. From my dark corner of the bar I simply watched, wondering if they knew I could kill them all before this horrid country ballad ended. They didn't notice. Far too often people saw only what they wanted to see. It seldom offered them a viewpoint beyond their noses.

Over the years, I'd developed a theory. There was a fundamental flaw in the entire human species. A thousand years had passed since my last heartbeat. I couldn't remember if I'd ever been like this. All I knew was as far back as I could remember the one trait in humans that was a constant was their innate propensity for self-destruction. The most prevalent form of the disorder was their willful disregard of their instincts. When you added in their volatile emotions, they were nothing more than overzealous children who were too smart for their own good.

I saw the woman approaching, the scent coming off her fit in nicely with the alcohol, urine, stale cigarettes, and desperation stench in the bar. With her overly generous use of cheap perfume, she stood out, though not at all in the good way that I was sure was her aim. She somehow smelled more horrid than everything else did.

"Look," I said, cutting off whatever greeting was going to come my way. "I have trust issues. I'm not in a good place emotionally. It's not you, it's me. Take your pick but leave me alone."

Of course, she wouldn't. Clearly, this woman was attempting to escalate matters. It was a real shame, though not at all surprising. Humans just didn't know when to quit. It wasn't admirable, it was stupid. "You've never had a woman like me. I would rock your world," she purred in a raspy voice.

Seriously, what about me sitting off in a dark corner suggested I wanted my world rocked? Still I nodded as if I was considering the offer. "What do you think of vampires?" I asked conversationally. "You're not into them are you?"

She shuddered in disgust and the expression on her face was right in line with her physical reaction. "Hell no! I ain't no fangbanging whore!" Just a regular one, I supposed. "Those things are worse than them coloreds and gays," she concluded. I bet her grandfather wore white robes, burned crosses and would have used a far nastier epithet, so I suppose this was an improvement. For all the indignation in her voice, you wouldn't have known she was all but pawing at me without invitation and molesting me with her eyes.

"Good to know," I murmured.

I leaned into her with a coy smile and waved her forward with my index finger. With a bright smile on her caked-up face, she happily leaned in closer. I winced, and wriggled my nose as she came well into my personal space. When we were face-to-face, I flicked her forehead with my finger. The force of the tap was enough to give her a nice bruise to look at for a few days. Let's face it, it was the least she deserved, but just for shits and giggles, I scared the hell out of her.

I fully popped out my fangs. "I vant to suck your blood," I said, in a clichéd Hollywood Dracula impression.

Her eyes went wide and she tumbled over her chair in her rush to get away from me. She scampered back and used her fingers to make a cross. Some things never got old! I laughed to myself as she ran off screaming out the door. People watched but the music blotted out the screams. Even if anyone heard, they were too busy being drugged to do a thing about it.

I left the bar resigning myself to the fact that nothing good to eat was likely to walk through its doors. It was no surprise, after all, I was in the backwaters of Florida. I walked home tonight hoping to chance upon a meal on the way. No such luck. I would be leaving this state soon. Seeing as I preferred to travel on my own power, I would need my strength.

The next night I moved on to Miami Beach, where there was an abundance of variety. Despite my aversion to bottled blood, it was the best option next to going hungry. In the event there wasn't a single human who wasn't drunk or high, I could resort to that. Strolling the boardwalk, I'd found more than enough donors to sustain me for a few days.

I knew she was there even before I saw her frail old form on a bench. The only reason she sought me out was because she had work for me. I was an Enforcer for the laws of vampires in the New World. It wasn't what I wanted to be when I'd risen to this new, immortal life. I'd had so many different ideals and hopes. I thought with the prospect of eternity came endless potential. It was quite the opposite. The older I got, the less I wanted to be bothered. I'd seen and done everything more than once. For the most part, I was bored to absolute tears.

Humans bored me the most, but they weren't the only ones. Vampires were strangely not far behind. My species was self-serving, scheming, and I never knew a vampire to trust another that wasn't their blood. Yeah, so it was that kind of thing. You could know a vampire for five hundred years and on the six hundredth anniversary, he would stake you without blinking an eye. The fucked up part was more often than not, it wasn't personal. It was sheer pragmatics. He'd simply found something more beneficial to him than your friendship. My favorite species were Ghouls. They lived and let live.

People will have you believe that I am an arrogant smart mouth prick on my best day and a degenerate brute any other time. Some said I got more willful with every passing decade; that I did what I wanted and my middle finger was proverbially extended to the world. So very hurtful and untrue might I add.

In reality, I'm an asshole with a great sense of humor that few people could appreciate. In addition, I wasn't a degenerate brute, I simply enjoyed a good bloody fight, a warm red drink, and a hot wet woman. See, they were entirely different things. My current profession allowed me to put my skills to use and gave me an outlet for my great personality. It offered freedom from the trivial game of thrones and the monotony of living in the open as a vampire. I was sure if I had to mainstream or something of the sort I would run, not walk, to the meet the next sunrise.

The unseeing eyes of the Ancient Pythoness, or Old Bat, as I liked to call her, followed my approach. At this point, I wasn't sure if her ability to see the future was extremely precise, or if she was faking blindness to maintain her position of vampire referee. It was hard to say. One minute she needed help crossing the street and signing her name, the next she was single- handedly tracking me down across several state lines.

"I find myself feeling cautiously optimistic," she said as hello. "This is not as seedy as some of the places I have had to travel to find you."

I should bow, but what was the point? She couldn't see it and I had a bad back. Okay, it wasn't so much a bad back as it was "Oppositional Defiance Disorder." It kept things safe and interesting for me.

"You should have come by yesterday," I replied, slouching in my seat. "Your optimism would have caught a contact high."

I saw as she repressed a sigh. "When will you tire of this?" she said.

"Here we go again," I murmured. I rolled my eyes at this same old routine. Now when she got started I just changed the station. I got nice and comfortable because it was going to be awhile.

"Countless times I have offered you a place in my cabinet and the rank of Captain of the Enforcers."

As she spoke, I mouthed her words. I knew them verbatim. She had been saying the same shit for the past two hundred years.

"Not only do you refuse the honor, you are brazen enough to ignore my summons. In two hundred years, you have never been to an Enforcer meeting. In two hundred years, you have not been able to keep a partner for more than a week. Confidence, I can respect, but you are arrogant, reckless, and willfully defiant; a rebel without a cause. What is worse? You troll through hovels and I am forced to wade through filth in search of my—"

"Best soldier," I completed for her. "Being a Captain doesn't impress me," I told her.

I did the bare minimum that would ensure the job was done. Somehow, that still managed to make me the best. I wasn't complimented. I was irritated. I was an eternal underachiever who was failing at underachieving.

"What would?" she asked.

"You," I replied, after a thoughtful moment. "Operating a motor vehicle." She had left herself open to that one.

"I should have you whipped for your insolence," she murmured.

As if that would do any good. "Whips and chains excite me," I replied.

Holding her hand out to me in a very old world manner, she used my help to get to her feet. Despite finding me on her own, she always insisted I escort her thereafter, lest she appear like a woman of the night. I maneuvered us away from the crowd and toward her waiting vehicle. I walked her to the back seat, but didn't open the door.

"Need I remind you that I am blind?" she prompted.

I scoffed. "Just because I can't prove you aren't doesn't mean you are," but I opened the door all the same and slid in beside her.

She shook her head and sighed. "You make forever seem so very far away, Eric."

I grinned. "You're welcome." I replied happily.

Whenever she had to track me down personally, which was often, she never gave me my assignment up front. That would be too easy. Instead, she would fly me to her home in Minnesota. The lodge style home was like a fortress in the woods. There was a reminiscent Roman feel to it and she insisted all her guests dress in the garb of that time. This was her way to punish me. I would never admit how effective it was. She would force me to remain by her side, using one pretense or another.

Once, she took me with her to a meeting with her scribes. I took silver to myself so I could have valid cause to be excused. Still she wondered why I didn't want to captain her band of merry men. This time was no different. It took two weeks of me wearing a bed sheet, and trying to pick my way through ancient Latin with Greek undertones before I got my assignments.

"We are diversifying," the Pythoness said.

I rolled my eyes. I wondered what else she wanted to throw into the mix, not that it made any difference to me. "By 'we' you mean me," I retorted.

"By that I mean we will extend a helping hand to other species in need, human too."

"Whatever, you Old Bat," I said, picking up my list of targets. "You point, I shoot."

The great reveal meant completely different types of crimes for vampires. The most common was of them being soldiers for hire to humans with money. That was a very big 'no-no'. As vampires, we kept our wars separate from those of the humans. We were forbidden to choose sides in their squabbles by fighting in their wars. As immortals, we were the ones who had to live with the consequences. We had to maintain the balance of power by staying out of their affairs.

Other types of serious offences involved vampires who were cruel for sport. Well, it wasn't the cruelty portion that got them in deep shit. It was their inability to do so inconspicuously or choose their kills wisely. My least favorite was vampires who were both insane and powerful, but had no maker to leash them. It was like leaving a chainsaw on and trusting it to show discretion.

The procedure for offenders was simple. The investigators gathered evidence against them. A scribe would deliver their first warning and attempt to reform their behavior with a speech. I have never delivered nor received one of those warnings, but I assumed it went a little something like this:

"To ensure no further infractions, I have come to assist you. Instead of slaughtering an entire upper class family, perhaps you maybe could choose an underprivileged one, or a vagrant even? If you wish, I could provide you with a list of cities with a high population of the homeless."

Pauses for a yes or no answer, not that it really mattered. My guess was they all read from the same script that came sewn into their purple and red robes.

"Also, be sure to plant large amounts of illegal substances on their person. Or perhaps you could relocate to an impoverished or war ravaged country where they do not have the technology to determine cause of death. I will be happy to assist you in that endeavor." Smiles warmly and leaves card, "I am so glad I could be of help to one of our own." Nods wisely, then departs.

Sometimes that was enough, but often the behavior persisted. The next infraction resulted in a hefty fine. If that didn't deter the behavior, the next step before arrest was a larger fine and said rule breaker was brought in to receive a direct reprimand from the Pythoness herself. One more offense brought on the involvement of the Enforcers, who contained the vampire and brought him or her to stand trial.

Depending on the severity of the crime, the lawbreakers fought like hell because odds were they would be spending at least a century in the Catacombs. The Catacombs was a silver mine belonging to the Pythoness. It was a vampire prison. From what I knew, silver had been melted to line every inch of the underground hell.

They say the underground labyrinth was so vast and complex that if you wandered deep enough into it, you could shake hands with the devil. There was no need for guards. The Catacombs was entirely self-sustaining. It consisted of endless caverns lined in silver. The inhabitants didn't see the moon or stars. They weren't able to interact with one another. It was utter sensory deprivation. They fed on rodents or starved. There was nothing but abysmal darkness, the cackling laughter of minds unhinging, and the piercing screams of torment. So before being sentenced to the Catacombs, many ended their own existence or fought the Enforcers, and often died in the process. That was definitely better than hanging out by the devil's front door for several centuries.

Most vampires got stronger as they got older. Some rose to this new life with the strength of someone five centuries their senior. There were some that were ancient but had the raw strength of a centurion. There was just no hard and fast rule but the Enforcers had developed a way to measure power. How they did do this? I couldn't say, I've never been to a meeting. I just knew my targets and their numbers.

The labels ranked from S1 to S7 and it determined threat level. S1 was harmful to no one except humans. Meanwhile S7 vampires posed an extreme threat to everyone supernatural or otherwise. I was called in for S4 offenders or higher. In other words, I got the bottom of the barrel. They took longer and were often more dicey, but I was yet to fail in closing a case.

My name is Eric Northman. I've lived everywhere and moved anywhere the chase brought me. This wasn't my dream job, trust me. One starry summer night exactly two hundred and five years ago I found myself in a desperate situation. It was a long story involving a woman, love, and me. It was a disastrous blend if ever I saw one.

Anyway, to save said woman, I sacrificed my position as sheriff and offered to take her place in The Catacombs for her two hundred and fifty year sentence. The Pythoness offered me a bargain of five hundred years as an Enforcer in exchange for the life of the woman I loved. Now my responsibilities or my life no longer involved political bullshit. It was far simpler. I found people who didn't want to found. I reached people who no one else could touch. It didn't matter how well they hid, how far, or how fast they ran. I was never far behind.

I couldn't explain what I did or how I did it. Even when I was human, it had been easy for me to find game. Once I got the image in my mind, I felt an inexplicable lure toward what I sought. It was a flavor; not of their scent, but the core essence of what they were. Regardless of the glamour and magic they could use to alter their physical appearance or obscure their scent, they couldn't change that. It called to me and led the hunt. The closer I got, the stronger the essence of the prey. I found a ghost once, just to prove I could.

Looking down at the roster, I saw my workload was a bit heavier than the last. It told me I had been on vacation for quite some time. It wasn't a vacation really. I was just waiting for the pile to grow and piss off Her Imperialness. After reading the specifics on each target, I ordered everything I needed to begin working. Depending on the individual elements of the case, I could be on the road for up to a year.

"You couldn't even throw me a single kill?" I asked the Pythoness as I zipped my duffle bag. "And you wonder why I'm a pain in your ass."

"Anyone can kill," she retorted, with something akin to amusement. It might be because I was doing my job, or she was getting me out of her hair. "It takes a special kind of…talent to do what you do."

What she meant was it took the worst of the worst to take down the bad. I rolled my eyes and got into the car.

"Do try to bring that back in one piece," she said, inclining her head to the sleek black car that awaited me.

It was a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport I drove while on duty. Since my preference for the vehicle, I've been through four. Before that, I'd run through several Ferraris and Porsches. While I could fly, I simply delighted in making the Ancient One pay for them. Having an eternity meant you had to learn to enjoy the simple things.

***0000***

Feels so good to be back! I always get a thrill after posting the first chapter. I know there is nothing to speculate or think on but I would love to know the initial thoughts on this Eric. I am also taking a survey for an updating schedule.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Yayyy! I so love you guys and gals. I am too happy to be back, you have no idea. Real life has nothing on the FF universe. So here's the thing, my last Fic topped out at 1505 reviews. I want this Fic to beat it like a rented mule! I will admit I don't a way with analogies but you guys know what I mean. For writers that bust their butts here a review is like a book sold. I can't speak for every other writer but it makes my day. So join my cause! **

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**Chapter 2**

**The Hard Way**

Vampires were creatures of habit. Eventually we would go back to somewhere that offered us a specific thing no place else could. It might be the scent of sand in the desert, or the salt in the ocean, but there was always something. Franklin Mott couldn't resist bakeries; specifically speaking he enjoyed baking wedding cakes. He was easy to find. It was wedding season on Cape Cod in Massachusetts; he was taking his choice of shops.

That particular quirk would be fine, except he had a penchant for kidnapping little girls of just about any species. He would force them to play house, and when they became women, he killed them. His toll of victims was so high that human law enforcement thought him to be a serial killer. Other supernatural creatures were shouting at The Pythoness for his head and they would get it.

Admittedly, I'd seen things that are more peculiar but this shit was just…fucking strange. Not considering the fact vampires didn't eat or the scent of human foods were off putting to the undead, there was a mark on his back, and he knew it. The only hope he had in avoiding justice was to escape to the Old World, Europe. They used old rules and had slightly more flexible morals, but offered less freedom in return. That, too, was a better choice than The Catacombs. While he had that option, here Franklin was, decorating a cake.

I watched him from across the rooftop. There was a woman in the corner. She was covered in flour but unharmed. She was an employee who had been unfortunate enough to be working after hours. By the blankness of her face and the bleariness of her eyes, he had put her under his thrall so he could have his way with her cake. Franklin danced and sang happily while decorating a four-tier masterpiece. It was a replica of The Vatican, complete with The Sistine Chapel. The artistry really was impressive.

There was a look of equal parts lust and love in his eyes that told me he was thinking of exchanging vows with his next victim. Since he wouldn't get another, I let him have his fantasy. Also, it was my assumption that interrupting it would make things difficult. I waited for him to finish before I took him down. As Franklin turned away from the main road and toward a nearby cemetery, I landed in his path from above. What could I say? I like to make an impression.

"Look, you have two choices," I began amicably. "The first is my way and it involves little to no pain, but requires your full cooperation…" He bolted before I finished.

I spared a second to sigh.

The first target often dictated the tone for my entire hunting trip. By the feel of this, it was in for a long one. For some reason I couldn't imagine, people always ran or fought, which was the second option. To this day, it has never worked for anyone. The only thing they had to gain was pain. That was the consequence to those who actually made me work for my living.

Franklin had been counting on me flying, but I was just as fast on foot as I was in the air. I cut off his retreat so abruptly that he ran into me. Then I wrapped my arms around him and stabbed him in the back, severing his spinal column. He instantly went limp in my arms. There was nothing for him to do to defend himself but scream and he did.

"If you don't stop, I'm going to rip out your voice box and feed it to you."

He decided to take his chances in court rather than with me. Smart man. I carried him back to the crypt where he rested, gagged him, and bound him in silver. Then I called the closest Enforcer of the Pythoness to let them know where they could find Franklin Mott. That was pretty much how every case went. I chased them, found them, and called someone else to bring them in.

Since I took the plea bargain, I did my job. Regardless of my proficiency at the job, I never got it confused with a righteous cause. I didn't care who Franklin or any of the other ones were. What they had done didn't matter either. I was serving a different kind of sentence. My crime was stupidity.

Eight months and fourteen lawbreakers later, I found myself in Nebraska in the armpit of nowhere. Literally, I was in a cornfield and there was nothing for miles and miles but more cornfields. This wasn't my idea of a good time. I was chasing down the last vampire on my to-do list. I had very little patience left. The fact that Mickey was nicknamed "The Devil of the Shire" didn't scare me. It made me pity him. Apparently, all the good nicknames were taken before he was made.

I'd found him an hour ago in a little bar on the state line. As I did with every target I had to take down or take in, I'd given him his options, limited as they were. "The Devil of the Shire" had gone with the second option. Apparently, he didn't care that I was missing reruns of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer."

The devil my cold dead ass! He wasn't living up to his reputation. He was moving in a panic and wasn't even level-headed enough to do it quietly. I was following his mad dashes of evasion at a leisurely pace. If I were out to end him, I could do it with my eyes closed.

"Enough already! Stop running!" I said, moving through the brush.

"You don't have to chase me," he replied calmly.

"This'll get worked out in court," I told him. "I know a good lawyer."

"Fuck you!" And that was it for conversation.

I sighed. I didn't know why he had decided to run this way. There was nothing here, but he had long scoped out the area so chances were he had a few surprises for me. I wasn't wrong. I saw the trip wires ahead and decided to set them off anyway. It would make things move along much faster if he came to me.

I fell into a pit that had been dug into the ground. The hole was at least thirty feet deep. It might have even been an old well. The sides were tiled and slick with oil even the most agile creature wouldn't have been able to climb out. I looked down and saw human corpses in varying stages of decay. If not for my ability to fly, I would have an ass full of wooden pikes.

I kicked at several of the spikes so they snapped, then I bit my finger and fanned my blood all around me. I made some gurgling noises as if I'd been impaled. Sure enough, the idiot came running and there was a triumphant expression on his face.

"Looks like option B worked out for me after all," Mickey said with a delighted laugh. "Now tell me who sent you before I make popcorn from your pile of ashes."

"Oh…no…please don't," I whimpered in an utterly pathetic tone.

I could put on a good show. I've had more than a few people beg me for mercy that wasn't mine to give. He struck a match and set a nearby cornhusk on fire. Now I was truly annoyed. This was my favorite t-shirt. If he ruined it, I was really going to make the next couple nights hell for him. Not wanting to await an answer, he dropped the burning vegetable along the edge of the well, setting fire all around me. Before the flames engulfed the small space, I flew up and had him pinned under me.

"Option B never works for anyone," I hissed, then snapped his neck.

He was a vampire. It would be a mild source of discomfort until it healed. Unfortunately, for Mickey, he was last on my roll call. It meant I would be delivering him personally to Minnesota and it was a long way. Then I could drop off my car, my gear, and disappear for a few more months. Maybe I could visit Godric or my sister.

Mickey had many crimes, most of which were against humans. That was a marker of S1 undead or supernatural creatures in general. They couldn't go toe to toe with their own kind so they victimized humans who, unbeknownst to them, aren't as high on the food chain as they thought.

He had been picking sides in wars in developing countries. His trademark was gathering refugees or soldiers in churches and then setting it on fire. He had been given his warnings and he had ignored them, so here we were: him with his neck broken and me having to drive him the hundreds of miles to decide his fate.

I had to snap his neck every time it healed. He wouldn't stop screaming, begging, and trying to bribe me otherwise. It was messing with every song that played on the radio.

I arrived in Minnesota two nights later right before dawn. The only option I had outside the hospitality of Her Grace was going to ground. I went to ground with a pep in my step. The next night I began my journey west towards California, a much more pleasurable location this time of year.

California was one of those places that changed drastically with every passing decade but the change was superficial. The scents, sights, and sounds of the state were so easily swayed by the heavy influx of population. Nevertheless, the heart and soul of the state never changed. I found myself in Santa Monica.

The feel to the air around me was frantic. Some humans were high; others were trying to get there. They roofied each other, stole, did lines of coke, and teamed up for quickies in the restrooms. I'd gone a few days without blood and was looking to feed. The choices I had weren't ideal. Being a vampire, I couldn't catch diseases from the many sick people here, but I could catch a contact high. That was the last thing I needed.

I left the club. It was early enough to try my hand elsewhere. That was how I found her. She was seated on the balcony of what was presumably the hotel's restaurant. Her meal was done, but she was simply picking at it for something to do. From this distance, I could smell what she was fighting so hard to suppress. She was ovulating, and her need was thick in the air about her.

There was something about the scent of women when they were in heat. Their sheaths were slicker and their bodies were half aroused even before a man laid hand upon them. The pheromones their bodies gave off were sharper and so much louder, so that even human males took notice. With heightened senses, it was impossible to ignore. When the wind blew in my face, my fangs tingled. This woman was in need, desperately so.

Even with the distance and cars, drinks, drugs, and people, she was making my mouth water. She smelled better than anything I'd encountered in so long. I knew I had to have her, which was before I took in her physical splendor. Beautiful as she was, she wasn't advertising the fact; she was seated alone in a dimly lit corner as if trying to go unnoticed. I wondered if she knew how impossible such a thing was. In the blackest night, she would still shine.

While many men and some women stared, she hadn't made eye contact with a single one to encourage their advances. It wasn't something that ever made a difference to me before but I noticed her hair first. There was lushness to the perfectly coiffed strands that made my fingers itch to touch. From her proper posture at the table, I could see her frame properly. She was womanly, voluptuous even.

The dips and curves on her body were in all the right places and her tank top and tight low riding denim jeans displayed it for all my viewing pleasure. If that wasn't enough to call the attention of all men, her breasts were perfect and I would bet all I had she wasn't wearing a bra. From under the table I could see that her thighs were pressed together to belie the blazing heat at her core. It had to be the hunger for blood that was causing such a strong physical reaction.

As if the woman felt my eyes on her, she looked across the street to where I stood still in the influx of people, watching her. I approached her and she took in every step as I parted the crowd and navigated traffic with ease. The closer I got, the more of her I could see. By that, I meant she got more attractive to my eyes. I could see the sparkle in her blue eyes and the supple smooth texture to her sun-kissed skin. I could see the slight pout to her full lips. Without awaiting an invitation, I sat across from her. My pose was slouched, casual, as if I owned the place.

I thought my flagrant display of arrogance would elicit a reaction from her but it didn't. She didn't waver under the intensity of my stare. She matched it. As I studied her, she in turn studied me. I knew her habits within the instant I sat across her. She was ambidextrous, but favored her right hand. She didn't smoke, do any drugs, or drink. There was a subtle perfume rolling off her that mixed well with her natural fragrance.

She spoke first. There was something in the soft timbre of her voice I found both tempting and soothing. "Hiya, tall, blonde, and handsome," she greeted. "Whatcha' drinking?"

She might be a working girl. If she was working, I didn't mind paying. That profile didn't fit her though. She lacked the flagrant flirtatiousness they used as advertising. I'd also never known a hooker to buy a man a drink. I tilted my head to the side and stared at her trying to make her squirm. She only mocked the gesture, but a smile curved her lips. Some people were fang-friendly groupies who even sought vampires exclusively. I wondered what category she fell in.

"A negative," I replied, flashing a bit of fang.

The thought didn't scare her. Her server had been one the many men who had been watching her. Her hand was barely in the air to gain his attention and he was rushing over. He smiled eagerly and if he were a dog, his tail would be wagging all over the place.

"Did you change your mind about dessert?" Without waiting for a response, he took her glass of water. "I'll get you fresh ice."

She smiled at him as he turned several shades of red. "Thank you, Jamie. I'd appreciate that and a bottle of blood, A negative, please."

His eyes went wide. "You're a vampire."

"Are you scared?" she asked.

He shook his head with eyes wide. "I'd want to be your minion or whatever?"

"You're too good for that," she said, patting his arm. "Plus I'm not a vampire. He is."

She inclined her head toward me. Throughout their entire dialogue he hadn't taken notice of me. It wasn't insulting. It was amusing.

"I'm not hiring right now," I said with a nod. "If something opens up I'll let you know."

That was me being sarcastic, but he nodded happily and walked away to retrieve our orders.

I began wondering what she was. Being this close and seeing the way she so easily enthralled, I was inclined to believe she was other, but her scent read as human. I couldn't sense any kind of glamour at work. While I awaited my drink, I read more into her vitals. Her heartbeat was steady, her posture was relaxed. I watched her and she watched me. All the while, my body was screaming that I wasn't close enough.

"I'm in town for the weekend and I don't want to sleep alone," she said, after our orders arrived. "Interested?"

It was one of the things I enjoyed about the current times. Women enjoyed the same sexual liberties as their male counterparts. She wanted sex with no strings attached and she wasn't shy about asking for it.

"Yes," I said. "I am interested."

She threw down at least three hundred dollars for what had to be a forty-dollar meal. "My room's upstairs."

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*****Spoiler Alert*****

This is the earliest that I have inserted a lemon into a Fic. There will citrus a plenty, not just the next chapter but the next two.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm just going to come out and say it, you guys are awesome. I see people that aren't familiar showing love in the name of my review cause. That is a seriously encouraging for me. With that said, this is going to be a double scoop! **

**Ah, ah! This isn't going to be a frequent thing. I just found that a break in the updates wouldn't allow this scene to read as smoothly. I saw it as one in my head and that was how I wanted to present it for your reading pleasures. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 3**

**The Sweetest Surrender**

There had been no hesitation in her manner as she led me to her room. She didn't prattle or make small talk. There was one thing on her mind, on both our minds. I had had a bottle of blood, but with her sitting across from me, the taste of it was more repugnant than normal. As I glided alongside her, her excitement and need saturated her clothes. It teased my nostrils and I was tamping my urge to pounce on her there and then.

I simply stopped testing the scents in the air. It made it so very hard not to pull her up, pin her against the closest wall, and ravage her. I wasn't above that, but I didn't want to frighten her. If it was just blood I wanted from her I would have given in to the instinct, but I wanted to get inside her body almost as badly. I wanted to grip her thighs and bury myself in her to the hilt.

Her suite was at the top floor of the hotel. It was a mercy that it wasn't that far from the elevators. My fangs tingled and my cock throbbed. The scent of her desire and lust was rolling off her in waves and crashing over me.

"Make yourself comfortable," she said, pulling the clip from her hair. "I'm going to shower. Five minutes, wait for me please."

My instincts whimpered at the thought of her washing away the potent musk of her flavor. I didn't want her to shower. I wanted to taste her and feel her moist feminine heat just the way she was. That might not be a good idea considering how badly I wanted both.

Instilling control, I nodded easily. "I'll wait."

She smiled sweetly and walked away. Out of habit, I searched the room for danger. I pulled in the scents around me, sniffing for anything amiss. There were no fresh scent but hers. I looked around, did a quick search for weapons, but found none. She didn't have much luggage, just a small rucksack that held clothes. Her story of being here just for the weekend seemed true.

By the time the water stopped running, I'd done everything I needed to insure I would be safe in the room for at least a while. There was nothing to do but wait eagerly. When she opened the door, I wasn't disappointed. She hadn't bothered with a towel. I mean technically she had, but it was around her neck.

If I thought her figure alluring before, then she was nothing short of a luscious now, bared for me like this. It shouldn't have hit me so hard. I knew she would have been glorious naked. I'd known the instant I set eyes upon her. She was built nothing like most women of the time. She definitely was no stick figure, but she still managed not to have a single ounce of excess. Her hips flared from her narrow waist, and her breasts, so full, so supple, and so perfect, were begging for attention. I wanted to take a bite out her not for blood, but because she was a succulent morsel. There was no other way to put it.

"Do you know the difference between sadism and rough sex?" she asked, watching me carefully.

I nodded all the while my thirst flared to uncomfortable volumes. "Pain and control ," I answered.

"I don't like pain," she said.

There was apprehension that told me she didn't dislike pain because she couldn't handle it. She'd simply been hurt enough and wanted no more. It was such a cold world that someone so young and beautiful had obviously been hurt so many times. How could anyone want to hurt her? She was such a little thing. I wondered who they were and where they were so I could help them redefine the meaning of torture.

"I won't hurt you," I replied honestly. "You can count on that."

There was something familiar in her eyes. It was the same something I saw when I looked in the mirror. I could see that if I was a rolling stone, then she was the wind. Such a thing came from being alone for so long you weren't sure there had ever been a different way to live. I would guess she wanted anonymous sex because it made her feel human. It wasn't the physical act she was after; it was the touch and feel of another if only for a little while. I knew the feeling. I had sex with shallow women because I never wanted to forget the lesson I'd learned from loving one.

"Will you bite?" she asked, staring at my lips and biting hers. I knew she wanted me almost as badly as I wanted her. Her scent was rising all over again. The scent of her desire was growing into it's own entity in the room.

"Yes," I told her. "You smell so good. I want to fuck you, bite you, and rub myself all over you."

"But it won't hurt," she clarified.

She had no idea. My fangs were as skilled as my blade. She wouldn't feel a thing, good or bad, unless I wanted her to. "It won't hurt," I assured her, holding my hand out. "I promise."

We had an understanding, but neither of us moved any closer. I didn't want to frighten her or give her cause to change her mind. I wanted her badly, too badly in fact. The titillating call of her lust was all I could smell. It was clouding my mind. Her nipples were pebbled buds that reminded me of berries ripe for tasting. I've had women, it was part of my lifestyle. Being a vampire, it meant having several lifetimes to get my fill.

With her, all I wanted was to touch, taste, and possess her. I wanted to savor every inch of her. It was a primal desire. I wanted to own her. I wanted to mark her, and I wanted to make her mine and mine alone. In another part of my mind I was wondering what I was doing. Why and how could I want one person so badly? I'd been in more desperate need of blood before but this fixation on the source was unheard of. I was too far gone to care.

All I felt was hunger and all I cared about was sating it. The alarm that had been ringing since I set eyes upon her was raucous and the attraction turned magnetic.

"You don't have to be afraid of me," I said, unbuttoning my jeans and reaching for the zipper. At this point, I would agree not to bite if it was a deal breaker.

The garment hadn't been comfortable since I caught her scent and saw her body up close. My cock was swelling and hardening with my need but my jeans weren't getting any bigger.

"No," she said.

I stopped immediately. Then she took a cautious step forward "I want to take your clothes off, if that's okay."

I nodded and dropped my hands. Slowly, shyly, she brought her body flush against mine. Then ever so gently, she proceeded to peel my clothes from my body. She dropped to her knees and removed my boots and socks; she kissed her way up my body.

Finally, mercifully, I found myself on the bed as naked as she was. If I thought her breasts were perfect, her bottom was in a category all its own. It was round and bountiful. Already I knew I would have to have her face down and ass up. I needed to palm those creamy round globes and see as her body creamed for me and I milked every drop of her pleasure.

"Tell me what you like," she whispered, nipping at my earlobe. I shivered involuntarily.

The profile of a working girl entered my mind again, but no matter how I tried to align it to her, it didn't fit. Hookers were all business; methodical, direct, and wouldn't shake your hand without telling what it would cost. In addition, the way she touched me wasn't direct. There wasn't only an undertone of innocence but tenderness too. She was simply direct about her likes and dislikes, and she wanted me to be direct with mine. That would make this more enjoyable.

I wound my arms around her waist molding her closer to me. "I like a little bit of everything," I replied.

She nodded and began tracing the planes of my body. I remained still as she teased and explored me. She dragged her fingertips languidly across my skin. Gently, she unwound my hair from the neat ponytail at the nape of my neck and combed her fingers through it with a smile on her face. It was the sweetest torture, but I instilled control and let her lead. Her fingers traced my lips. Unable to help myself I sucked the digit into my mouth and was reward as her breath caught and her eyes went wide.

Slowly, she leaned down and kissed me. Her lips brushed against mine, experimentally, as if awed by the feel of me. Then with a delighted moan, kissed me fully. Her hands were around my neck holding me closer to her. Her full breasts were pressed flushed against my chest. She touched me as if there was nothing and no one else for her but me, as if she were trying to commit the feel of me to memory. She kissed me like I was the only man in the world, like I was the only man she wanted. She sucked my finger into her mouth and caressed it with her tongue. I watched entirely entranced, not only by the feel of it, but by the hooded hungry look in her eyes.

All the while, I ached. I simply let her scent intoxicate me and let her tongue boil my blood. I wanted more her; I wanted more everything; her and us. She kissed her way down the column of my neck. There was a point where she buried her face in my neck and just seemed to breathe in my scent. She was taking her time, teasing and acquainting herself with the feel of me so I had to employ patience.

"I want to kiss you here," she murmured. She caressed each of my nipples gently tugging at the blunt tips. I hissed involuntarily. That had forever been a secret source of pleasure for me.

"And here," Her fingernails dragged gently down the inside of my thighs and up the shaft of my cock. "Is that okay?" she asked.

Was she serious? I looked at her as she looked at me and apparently, she was. She wouldn't assume to know me or what I wanted. Everything she did she was going to ask for permission and I knew I had to do the same. After all, we were just two strangers looking to ease loneliness for a predetermined amount of time.

"Yes," I said, pulling her back against me. "Whatever you want."

She kissed a lazy stroll down my chest, past my navel and down to my manhood. Her mouth lingered and again I noticed her lack of experience, but it in no way deprived me of pleasure. She was learning, but trying to please at the same time. It drove me insane, although not in a bad way. I don't think a woman as beautiful as she could make touch anything but pleasurable.

Finally, her lips kissed my cock, and her tongue teased my tightened sac. My need was driven to a whole other level. My fingers were clenching the sheets above me. I was employing every trick I knew to stave off release. I was trying to think of something else. I was trying to pull my mind away. It was futile. She smelled too good. She felt too warm and she was so beautiful. It was beyond difficult even considering she hadn't done more than kiss me.

I was desperate to get inside her. I didn't care how. I bowed off the bed seeking the full heat and moisture of her lips. She was deliberately being elusive . Her tongue flicked and licked my weeping tip. She kissed my shaft ever so softly, almost reverently, but she wouldn't give me what I was in dire need of.

"Suck it…" I begged desperately.

"Like this?" she asked, wrapping her lips around me and swallowing my length.

With her full contact, every nerve ending in my body sparked and the flames ignited through me. I shuddered and groaned as the warmth of her mouth engulfed me. Nothing and no one had ever felt this good, not ever. It was more than the feel of her; it was the fervor in which she gorged herself on my length. She was making noises of deep contentment and soft mewls of hunger.

"Yes…" I groaned, as she continued to suck me deeper still. "Yes… like…that."

Obviously, for me to be so far gone I'd been without both blood and sex for too long. I was man enough not to care as she continued to bob her head and suck me into her mouth. The deeper my pleasure; the wetter and more fervent she became. I writhed helplessly under her. I didn't recognize the noises as my own. I was growling with my effort not to come and purring from delight.

The tip of my dick continuously hit the back of her throat and each time she only hummed happily. I wanted to come so bad, but I wanted her to it to be inside her. I wanted to spurt my seed deep inside her, it was part of this unfounded desire to own her. I wanted her to smell of me. I couldn't even describe the things she was doing to me or how good it felt.

For starters, most women had a gag reflex that prevented them from taking too much of me into their mouth but she deep throated me and didn't gag or slow to breathe. Normally this was the other way round. Women begged me for their release. They begged for reprieves from the overwhelming pleasure I gave them. This, with her everything felt magnified. I couldn't fight or tamp all that she was doing to me. I couldn't stave off my release any longer.

"Ahh...fuck...I'm coming!"

There was only a soft hum of her approval. I tried to pull away from her but she only followed. Somehow, she knew to suck me faster, she knew to stroke my cock with firmer strokes in between deep pulls of her lips. My control snapped, shattered and I knew it had never really been. With a wordless growl, my body erupted. I came with a force that left me momentary dazed. The blissful moment in time dragged out as she swallowed all I had to give. For a full minute all I could do was shudder and writhe under her

Finally, mercifully she released me from the captivating heat of her mouth. My mind was still fogged but it didn't take too much brain power to see that wasn't finished with me yet. She licked her lips and licked drops of my essence from her fingers. If wanted to own her, then she wanted to devour me and her appetite was voracious. Our eyes locked and I knew if I was human, I might not have survived her.

"I like the way you taste," she whispered. "I want to do that again."

My lover wasn't looking at my face. Her eyes were staring at my length like she hadn't had her fill. As if she couldn't help herself, she began stroking me in her soft hands all over again as she awaited my response. I was trembling. She just knew how to touch me. Her touch reached beyond raw physical gratification. It plucked at every string that was needed to usher me into paradise.

Honestly, I couldn't even begin to comprehend the question much less formulate an answer.

"Come here," I said, pulling at her wrist. "I want to taste you, too."

She obliged and sat on my face, wiggling her hips and spreading herself open for me. I hummed my approval. She was so wet and she smelled so good. With her so close, her scent was all there was. I couldn't get enough. Her juices sang through my body and drove me crazy with hunger and thirst. It made me dizzy with want. She sucked my cock down to the hilt as I teased and tasted her. I buried my tongue as deep into her dripping slit and greedily indulged in the sweet juices flowing from her sex. She tasted like heaven.

I inserted my fingers into her and found she was a very tight fit. She only suckled me harder with a deep moan. I buried my fingers inside her and curled them while sucking at her already engorged clit. My fingers stretched her because I knew I couldn't be gentle and I needed her to be able to take all of it. I didn't stop until she came. When she did, it was like ambrosia, nectar that should be forbidden due its potency.

The taste of her was sending me into frenzy. I felt like I had to be inside her or I would lose my mind. Her delighted cries were muffled as she refused to release me from the sweet torture of her mouth. Her throat trembled and worked to dislodge the obstruction but she didn't slow. I knew I couldn't handle anymore. She was going to push me over, again.

"I don't want to come yet," I growled. "Lover—"

My back bowed against the bed, but I tried to take all that she had to give. It wasn't easy. When her teeth grazed around the bulbous head of my cock, I quivered from the effort not to explode there and then. I managed, but it was all I could stand.

"I need to fuck you," I ordered, pushing her off me. "I won't be gentle."

There was no restraint in me for anything less. With her supple frame, I knew she could handle what I wanted to dish out.

"I can take it." she replied.

I flipped her on the bed and she fell on her stomach, pried her legs apart, and arched her back. Momentarily, she was dazed, but she didn't get a chance to fully register any of it before I was thrusting into her hot dripping pussy.

I caught the scent of blood, but it couldn't mean what I thought it meant. I might have been rougher than I intended. Her face was buried in the sheets, but it wasn't enough to muffle a scream but she didn't pull away from me. Regardless of how badly I wanted her, I slowed down as not to cause her pain. I didn't thrust like I wanted. Instead, I rubbed her lower back to ease the tense set to her shoulders.

"Okay?" I asked.

"Yes…I want it," she cried.

She relaxed around me and I was able to I surge deeper into her and she took it all, every hard inch. The pressure of fully invading her tight sheath nearly pulled me under. Her walls flexed around me and I shuddered. She was so very tight. I've had virgins with more give. I was slow giving her body time to adjust to the size of me. When she began urging me on, my thrusts were far in between, but with every turn, I was buried in her to the hilt. The noise of her flesh hitting mine mixed with her moans and my throaty growls as I enjoyed her body.

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**I seriously don't want to spoil anyone and then not deliver. This multiple update isn't going to be a recurring thing. I'm a sucker for lemons and all the citrus flavors. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**The Best I Ever Had**

The first thing a new vampire learns is fang control. Old as I was, I'd mastered it to the point that not even the sight of pooling blood caused my fangs to descend on their own. However, the scent of her, her wetness, her release, it was all too much. It smelled sweeter. I licked her neck and found even that tasted better. It had been so long since anything had ever smelled so good.

I could see what I was doing to her. Her body gushed, and I saw proof of her heat, desire dripping, and flowing with every thrust. There was a little blood, but she was too far gone to care about it and so was I. I enjoyed her body and took all I wanted. Her fingers grasped the sheets, but she was no longer trying to hide her moans. It was exactly what I wanted. She was screaming and crying out for me, and I wanted to hear every note of it. She cried out her pleasure and the river continued to flow, running down her thighs. Her back arched farther as she spread her legs eagerly as if she couldn't get enough of me.

This lover was the most responsive I had ever had. By that, I meant she had one orgasm after another simply from me thrusting in and out of her. It was to the point where she barely caught her breath in between. When I paused, she begged. When I slowed, she whimpered. She climaxed every few minutes and each time was with more force than the last. At this point, her knees threatened to give out, but she took it.

"Harder…faster…ugh…please," she cried. Her plea was desperate, and it did nothing but arouse me. "Baby please."

"Are you sure?" I asked. I wasn't going to ask her again, and didn't think I could stop once I let myself go completely.

"Need…you so bad."

It sounded as if she was fighting a sob, as if not having me ride her hurt. I rocked against her with renewed enthusiasm while I enjoyed her screams and cries of delight. I owned her, and she told me so without me having to ask. I drank in the victory of the conquest through all my senses, her voice, her scent, the feel of her…heaven help me, the feel of her tight hot body hungry for mine, the sight of her release forming a creamy pool in the sheets; it was all mine. That feeling of completion I'd been chasing since I'd laid eyes on her was sated.

A hungry snarl escaped me. My fingers gripped her plump bottom and spread her open for my attentions. The more I gave her, the more she wanted. She was coming undone. I knew she was. I could tell by the way her body seized when I stroked deep against her spot. I deprived her, but just so. I wanted to give her the break, and it helped me last longer. Nevertheless, I refused to get mine without giving her more and I was close. I gripped her hips, kept her still and she was done.

"Ohmigod, there…there—" she begged as her climax built. Her cry cut off into a desperate sob. She screamed and her body convulsed violently.

Instinct took over. Along with the blinding sexual haze that engulfed me, my body hungered for her blood. I was going to bite for the first time in ages. I didn't trust myself alone. I needed the source of my blood to cooperate.

"Want you," I hissed, as if it wasn't obvious as I was buried in her to the hilt.

I was referring to her blood. I didn't want her to struggle. I didn't want her to do anything to incite me further. Wrapping one hand around her waist and the other around her neck, I brought that pounding vein to my lips. My hold was tight as I crushed her back to my front. If she struggled, it would make the bite marks worse.

I tilted her head to the side and bared her neck. She wiggled and rocked her hips desperately. It told me that she close again. She needed me to finish her off though. The instant my fangs pierced her skin, I knew her taste for what it was: fairy.

The only thing that saved her was the fact that I placed value on my word which I'd given, and the fact she wasn't full-blooded Fae. Not even I was strong enough to combat my nature. I sank my fangs into her, massaged her clit, and felt as the pressure mounted beyond anything than she could handle. She clutched onto my hands and she cried out her passion.

Her body released her pleasure in bursts of hot streaming fluid. In that instant, she seemed to grow hotter, burn brighter, and pulled me in deeper until my body seemed to draw in her warmth. I became hyper-aware of single inch of her I claimed, and I only wanted more. I wanted to possess her. I wanted to own her.

I've never had fairy blood. I didn't know how I would react to it. From the first drop, a euphoric feeling washed over my body. It engulfed me entirely. What I felt could be compared to being inebriated, except my mind was clear. My coordination and all my mental facets weren't at all debilitated, it was my body that was gone. I spilled my seed inside her and the force of that orgasm should have rendered me useless for a few minutes. Yet, her blood was invigorating and so intoxicating, there was no difference in the force of my erection.

My head was calling for a reevaluation. What was I doing? I had never had a sexual experience like this. I should be worried. I should stop. I should get some perspective. I didn't care about that. I wanted more and I needed her to give it to me.

"Again," I growled. "Now!"

"Come and get it," she whispered with a coy smile.

I pounced on her knowing she was more than willing to receive me. I was a male and she reeked of my scent. I could see my seed dripping from her. It was mixed with her with own juices. It was an erotic sight, an aphrodisiac, not that I needed it. She sat up and pushed against my chest, signaling she wanted to be on top. I fell back against the bed, but I kept hold of her wrists and took her with me.

She straddled me, her limber legs wrapped around my waist and her arms were around my neck. Sinking into her depths sent chills up my spine. She shuddered in delight at the feel of me invading her all over again.

She still had her lips to mine, with her tongue tasting as she rode me. Then she traced the outline of my lips with her index finger then dragged it across my fang. It was nothing more than a tiny pinprick to her. It spouted so little blood that I ached for more, but the feel of being in her so deep kept me from chasing it. It elicited the perfect blend of temptation and deprivation. I don't know how she knew to do that because to me it was heaven on earth.

Her lips teased my neck, she whispered sweet words and her body only ushered me into one mind numbing orgasm after another. Having her so close, her breasts pressed flush against my chest, having her kiss my lips, and hold me close only made me want more. Her fingers weren't in my hair or scoring my back. She was much too gentle for that. She held me cradled to her in a show of affection and more than a little passion. I was buried in her, she ground her hips, and rode me in a sultry fashion.

The scene was fading. It wasn't just the physical act. I could feel my body falling into a place where my mind had no control. I wanted anything. Hell, a whispered grocery list might get me to come in this state. Somehow, I knew I was still keeping the same rhythm because her cries were still ringing my ears.

I'd lost track of how many times she made me come. The night blended into a whirlwind of pleasure and we glutted ourselves. The pads of her fingers caressed my face and there was a tenderness to the gesture that was out of place for two strangers who were only seeking to ease their loneliness for the night. I was her baby and she was my lover, if only for tonight.

At some point, I was no longer hard and the worst of the high had worn off. Exhausted, we both collapsed on the bed. She was on top of me, but she made no move to get off and I didn't mind having her lay her head in my chest. She got her breathing under control and I wrapped my arms around her to keep her right where she was.

"I'm Eric by the way," I said, in introduction. It seemed long overdue.

She intertwined her little finger with mine and giggled it. I chuckled at the silly gesture. Then again, as exhausted as was, it was all she could muster. "Sookie," she replied.

"Interesting name," I commented.

I felt her face fold into a smile. "My parents were interesting people."

She reached for the blanket and pulled it across her shoulders, but she made no move to change her resting place. She stretched and a yawn overtook her. She reminded me of a well-fed kitten. It was very clear that she was spent and sated. I had to smile.

"Sleep," I murmured kissing her head, "You're tired. I made sure of that."

"I have nightmares. I don't want to freak you out."

I found that I still couldn't get a bead on her. That was more honesty than I was expecting. At first sight, she had looked vulnerable and lonely. Then she had been the best sex I've had in recallable memory. Still, I was older than most countries. It was highly doubtful that there was anything that she had suffered that I hadn't heard of.

"Do you mind talking?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"What about?" I replied, running my fingers through her beautifully disheveled hair.

A lazy shrug preceded her response. "Anything you don't mind sharing with a stranger."

In truth there was very little that I would share with anyone. However, this would be as meaningless to me as it was to her. I rubbed her back and kept my other arm around her as I began reciting the alphabet in every language I knew. There were a lot of them. Some were ancient, others extinct, but she didn't care.

"I like the sound of your voice," Sookie murmured lazily.

Therefore, I kept talking. With every word I spoke, I felt her body grow more relaxed. Her eyelids began to droop as she began falling into unconsciousness. I was wondering what it was that haunted her even in sleep. Then I had to remind myself that it really didn't matter. It wasn't my business. Great as she was in bed, she was just a stop in the never-ending voyage of my life.

I left Sookie in her room and checked into a vampire friendly room on the other side of the hotel. I'd gotten blood. It was fairy blood, better than anything else I could have found. She was in heat and looking to ease the ache. I could sate her body and she would sate mine. I should move on to another but she was here for the weekend, why not get my fill?

The sun released me for the night, and I got clean and changed. I was at her room not twenty minutes later. Somehow, she smelled and felt better than I remembered. I could hear her heart beating in a lazy relaxed rhythm and even through the closed door, I could catch her scent. It was just as titillating, just as alluring but my hunger had abated. I still wanted the taste of her on my tongue. I knocked knowing she was there.

"Come on in Eric," she called.

I entered the room to find her on her balcony. She was seated on the ledge watching the city, twenty stories below. She was in nothing but shorts and a thin cotton top.

"That's dangerous," I commented, appearing directly behind her. I buried my face in her neck. My arms wound around her waist and I pulled her back against my chest. It was as if we'd practiced this maneuver. Her head fell against my shoulder and her arms wound around my neck.

"It's only dangerous if you push me," she said and her lips found mine. I turned her so she was facing me and I could taste her properly. Her legs cradled my hips and I lost myself in the feel and taste of her all over again.

"I'm glad you came back," she murmured when she had to come up for air.

"I promised you the weekend," I said, running my fingers through her hair.

She smiled and kissed me again briefly. "I going to see that show," she pointed down to the street corner where a crowd had converged to watch street performers. "You can come along if you want or I can meet you back here in two hours."

I nodded and found that I liked her easiness. It was a nice change of pace. Most women were needy after sex. I didn't have to spell out what this was. She wanted to make the most of her time and so would I.

"Are you afraid of flying?"

She seemed to have to think about it. When she answered, her response made no sense. "I don't think so," she murmured thoughtfully.

That seemed cryptic for someone so young but I didn't read into it. "Come."

I wrapped my arms around her and her legs tightened around my waist. Then I took us over the balcony. True to her words, there was no fear, she just yelped in excitement. I settled us on the roof directly overlooking the performance she wanted to see. It had been a way for me to make her happy so she would want sex with me, but I found that I enjoyed it. She didn't babble or have a need for constant reassurance that she was prettier than the female performers. She just swayed with the beat and pulled me up with her to dance on the rooftop.

That night we returned to her room and I was lost in the same mind numbing pleasure she had given me the night before. My need for blood was no more, but I bit her just because she bit me. Her teeth didn't break my skin but it felt so good. When I did, we'd both been lost to this world as our pleasure took over.

Like last night, she crawled on top of me as she prepared to sleep. My fingers played in her hair and I wondered if she was a housewife living out her fantasies. It wouldn't be the first time for me to encounter the sort. There might be a husband and a completely different life waiting for her after our time was done. Whoever he was, I found that I wished him ill, not just ill, but all the worst things in the world for owning the best sex I ever had.

"Where will you go?" I wondered aloud. "Once the weekend is done and your reality calls?"

"Don't know," she said, pulling my arm around her. "Very far away though. You?"

I thought about giving her an ambiguous response, but I told her the truth, though I had idea why. "Fangtasia in Shreveport, Louisiana."

She nodded but she said nothing more. I didn't ask anything else because I wasn't willing to answer any more of her questions. I was expecting, waiting and…partially hoping for her to extend her time with me. She didn't. She simply took my company and comfort for what it was. That was the way it should be. I wished all my sexual encounters with human women had been half as simple and pleasurable.

"Do you mind talking?" she asked again.

I kissed her head and repeated the same meaningless words from the other night. I recited the alphabet in every language I knew. Even after she'd succumbed to sleep, I kept talking. I translated every item in the room in a multitude of languages. The sun pulled me away, but I told myself I would have one last taste of her.

The next night, the last night, I returned but she was gone. There was no heartbeat to hear from the other side of the door. She'd left in the light of day. It had been fun I supposed. Were I of a mind to I could find her. I could tune into her emotions. I had her blood in my veins, but I refused. The terms had been clear and the fun had ended.

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**That's it for now, I do hope to see your thoughts and forecasts. Depending on real life and the feed back, I'll rear my head. When I return we'll jump right back into the thick of it. See you soon!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm so siked with all the positive feedback this Fic is getting. My goal is to beak 2,000 reviews and my promise to all of you for helping me get there, is updating daily, deal? Great, reading below means we have a deal. It was sealed with a pinky swear so yeah...it's mundo serious. **

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**Chapter 5**

**Coming Undone**

All I needed to forget the fairy was to have another woman who either looked or tasted just like her or something that was the opposite but better. A week passed and I got neither. As a precaution, I diluted the fairy's blood from my veins with that of other women and even bottled blood, to keep myself from doing something stupid. Oh, like say...tracking her down and running into her accidentally on purpose.

Dreaming for my species wasn't unheard of, it was just extremely rare. For the most part vampires didn't technically sleep, we died during the day. My desire was so strong, I joined the club of dreamers. In my dreams Sookie haunted me. I saw her; I felt the weight of her body, the soft timbre of her moans, the feel of her fingers, and her lips on my skin. The dreams I had were so vivid that I woke unable to believe she wasn't lying on top of me.

Eternity stopped being about time and the rise and fall of dynasties or empires. I'd stripped away the idiosyncrasies of time and simply reduced it to nothing but my target and me. There was nothing that engaged me quite as thoroughly as the hunt. When the centuries had bled together, the hunt had kept me focused. In some eras, when it felt like I blinked and decades passed, the hunt helped center me. That was what I needed now.

I left California and went to visit my sister in Louisiana. I wanted to travel like all vampires did in the old days, feeding off the hoof and finding shelter in crypts or in the ground during the day. During the night, I moved on my own power. It was freeing. It took me a few days but I finally felt the ties that bound me to my little pain in the ass sister.

The sound of water running covered my approach. I grinned. It was a great time to pick up where we left off and I owed Pam one. Flying to her bathroom window, I caught sight of her showering. I waited until she was rinsing shampoo from her hair then I struck.

"Boo," I yelled, banging on the outside her bathroom window. Pam yelped and got soap in her eye. I doubled over laughing. Some things never got old, like scaring the shit out of your little sister.

"Asshole," she said, rinsing the suds from her eyes. "Normal people use the door."

I laughed and let myself into her house. It was nice, but I shouldn't expect anything less from the sheriff of the area. Last, I checked, Pam didn't do monogamy and she didn't like to share her space. It appeared she was doing both. I caught the scent of a human, but it could have been a servant of a favorite pet of hers.

My sister dressed, sped down the stairs, and crashed into my arms. "Eric," she said, wrapping her arms around me. "I have missed you, you bastard."

"And I you," I murmured.

Over the years, we kept in touch through letters, phone, and email. It has been ages since I held her in my arms. I set her down and actually looked at her. My sister preferred pink and pastels and all things frilly and feminine. Nothing explained why she was wearing a plastic dress. I could see every curve of her lithe body and every breath she didn't take.

My brow arched in question. "Is this like the Robin Hood phase?" I asked confused.

She waved her hand to dismiss my question. "A girl has to eat."

"A girl should consider going hungry," I teased.

She slapped me upside the back of my head. I caught her hand and tickled her palm. She had forever hated that. As most siblings did, we quickly forgot about our squabble. When Pam began telling me about her bar, her ensemble made more sense. Fangtasia, was a vampire bar that was geared to provide humans with the undead experience. I followed Pam there and the scene was cheesy for lack of a better word, but the humans flocked as if awed. Their misplaced adoration about the undead meant that business was good.

They offered their blood and their bodies fervently and paid a fee to do so. They bought merchandise and imitated a life they wouldn't ever be inducted into, not while they were still alive. All my sister was doing was profiting off their ignorance and curiosity. What she was wearing was part of the illusion she was selling. She blended into the scene of her club. Most of the people present were dressed in black, leather, and nothing much in between. The scene was nothing like how the typical vampire lived. We wore back to blend into the night. We lurked in clubs for easy meals, but I have never seen a vampire just hanging about with their fangs exposed.

I told myself that I wasn't waiting for my mysterious stranger in Pam's area. After all, I had planned to spend some time with my sister before my next case. That was all this was. Pam's bar was a place to get an abundance of blood. In the month that I'd been residing in my sister's area and frequenting her club I'd gathered a following, which by the way, annoyed the shit out of me. I hissed and snarled and bared my fangs in warning and they only came nearer. Five hundred years ago, they would have ran then gathered their torches and pitch forks while shouting, 'Kill the beast. Now, it only excited them.

I didn't remember many of them after getting blood. I fed because I absolutely had to. I didn't register their scent because it was nothing special. It was nothing like a taste of fairy. Physically none of them fit the mold of what I desired, so nothing eased the tension in my loins, believe me, I tried and I couldn't get aroused enough to reach half mast.

"You're doing that thing," Pam said, as I helped her close her bar for the night.

I rolled my eyes. "What thing?" I asked, knowing full well what she was talking about.

"You are itching for the road," she said, pointing at my hand. While my left hand had been helping her with her books, my right was twirling my blade across my knuckles.

"It's my old age," I told her. "I can't be in one place too long."

She scoffed. "Godric is a thousand years older and his address hasn't changed in two hundred years."

"So maybe I'm not old enough to settle," I supplied.

"I'm eight hundred years your junior and I've settled. You could stay here with me," she said seriously. "It will be like the old days. I am sheriff; you would have free rein and security here."

"Is this because you want me to do your math?" I said, passing her the nightly bank receipts.

She laughed. "Am I that obvious?" she wondered.

I rolled my eyes and followed her out of the bar. However, Pam didn't return to her home with me. She had a human pet she going to see. It wasn't until an hour before dawn did she return. She smelled like sex and blood, and she was sated. I've been glutting myself on one and starving for the other because I couldn't get the taste of one human out of my mind. It was so bad that I was missing the Old Bat.

I shook the utterly asinine thought aside. Hell, all Sookie knew was my name which she had probably forgotten by now. I remembered hers because she was the first 'Sookie' I ever met, if that was her real name. Eric was common enough, she had probably forgotten it and I should return the favor. I should have drained her I thought, annoyed with myself. It would have saved me the trouble of wondering what man she was keeping warm tonight.

It was an act of mercy that I heard from an investigator/handler of the Enforcers. Bill Compton was like Sherlock Holmes who was missing a Watson. He followed the rules to the point that it clouded his common sense. I never liked him and I knew that I never would. I did have to tolerate him for the next three hundred years or so. I sincerely hoped he wouldn't live that long. He annoyed the ever-loving shit out of me.

Normally I ignored him when he called to assign my cases. After I'd racked up a dozen cases in my log, he reported me to the Pythoness and then she would come looking for me. In return for turning me in, I created a greeting on my work phone just for him. After the last ring, this is what he heard every time he called, _'Dear Bill, the south will never rise again, get over it. Also feel free to fuck off after the beep.'_

This time I needed the distraction so I took Bill's call. When I answered, he didn't seem to know how to proceed.

"I have a case," he began.

"You don't say?" I replied sarcastically. "Here I was thinking you called just to tickle my balls with your southern charm."

"You might find this interesting," he said, ignoring my jab.

"When, where and what time?" I asked.

"Tomorrow," he answered "Jackson, Mississippi at the Hillside Motel, at 11."

I couldn't get packed fast enough. Whatever this assignment might be, I hoped it pulled me far away and took a great deal of time because I was acting like a real bitch. Pining after anyone wasn't something I did. As long as I've been alive, I learned to let go of worldly things. Being as ephemeral as they were I'd added humans to that category. It didn't matter how delicious she was, Sookie was now on that roster.

I was early for my meeting and I watched Bill enter the room but he wasn't alone. He had four human men with him. By the scent of gunpowder coming off them, the way they moved, it was obvious they were law enforcement. The lack of uniforms said they were higher up on the food chain. This must have been what the Pythoness had been referring to when she said we were diversifying.

Interestingly as they all filed into the room, I followed behind them. I could have snapped their necks before they drew their weapons. I ignored the guns and the itchy trigger fingers. The smell of silver was emitting from the butt of their weapons.

"Skittish?" I asked Bill. "Aren't they?"

"Eric," he greeted curtly.

"Lieutenant," I replied with a grin. It wasn't that I was singling him out, it was the fact that there was a stake up his ass that made things worse for him.

"That's a great way to get yourself shot," one of the humans said, holstering his weapon.

"Maybe I want you to shoot me so I can feed you your beating heart," I added innocently.

"He's joking…" Bill said, entering the room. "You can put the guns away."

I laughed as I followed them inside. His words had told them I was joking, but not really. Silver or no, the only thing shooting me would do was piss me off.

"Welcome," The human in charge said. "I am Agent Michael Lattesta, F.B.I." The three others against the wall had their hands on their hips in close range of their guns. While they had heeded Bill's warning, they still didn't trust the situation. It was wise of them.

"From left to right," he continued. "Meet Agent Courtland Colt from the D.E.A. Next to him is Bryce Newman, A.T.F. Police, and last, but not least, is our liaison from the D.O.D, Agent Zach Goodwin."

"That is a lot of acronyms," I observed blandly. "Any particular reason why I have to learn them all at once?"

"They are a special task force geared to take down a crime syndicate," Bill said. "The Pythoness favors them and seeks to aid their cause."

I was sure the Old Bat was charging them through the nose for it too. By the look on his face, this pleased Bill. He has forever had a hard on for saving the humans. I didn't see why. If someone supernatural wasn't killing them, then they were killing themselves. They were also utterly helpless, especially the ones in charge. It was one of the drawbacks of the modern age and technological advancements. When it failed, most people didn't know what to do. This was most likely going to be some elusive shadow they couldn't pin down because he didn't have an email address or a phone.

"Your target," Agent Lattesta said.

I looked up and the look on my face was so cold the other agents drew their weapons, again. "My target will be you if you assume anything else about me." I said calmly. There was a coy smile on my face, but I was ready to rip his fucking arm off and beat him over the head with it.

"I can only guarantee your safety, if you do as I say," Bill ordered.

He flashed to shield me and not them. Unlike the humans, he knew how much danger they were in if they didn't back down. It didn't matter to me one way or the other what they did or how they played their hands. Actions had consequences. I was just waiting to administer them.

"Shooting him will harm your cause and it will do nothing for your overall good health." he advised.

Agent Lattesta found his composure. He waved his hand, the others dropped their arms, resumed nonthreatening stances; at least in their opinion they had been a threat to begin with.

"Our target," he admitted,"…we don't know much."

Okay. This was interesting, but no one in their position could have entirely nothing good to offer. "What do you know?" I asked, "Is he black or white? Is he prone to acts of random violence, is there a profile?"

"We don't know any of that," he said.

His face gave nothing away but I heard him grind his teeth. Clearly reaching out to the undead was a last ditch effort for him.

"We have been chasing a shadow. There is no face, no name; we call them "The Outfit." They tie loose ends and we're always a step behind. We don't get a bead on them until they're gone."

"You have wasted your time," I told them honestly. Which was nothing, it was a pity. It seemed like an interesting chase that could offer multiple targets but I couldn't help them. "I need a face, a name, a place, or an alias, anything more than what you have." I rose to my feet ready to depart.

"Wait," Agent Latestta said, reaching after me. By the slight inflection of his voice, I knew he was desperate. "We might have someone who is affiliated or victimized by them. We can't say for sure that she's even alive."

That wasn't a problem. If she was dead, I could verify it, lead them to a grave and a corpse. If she were alive, then I would give them a lead in their case. "Go on," I prompted.

"It is the agencies' belief that she is possibly other," he said. "Not vampire, at least since her last and single arrest."

Since vampires came out of the closet, it wasn't a far jump for an intelligent mind to make. If vampires were real, then what else went bump in the night? Wouldn't he like to know? The truth was there were countless species of the supernatural that shared this world. I couldn't out anyone who didn't want to reveal their presence.

When it came to procreation, humans had the most amenable genetics. They could breed with just about anything. The pain in my ass was the product of those unions often enjoyed the best of both worlds. It made it hard to pin them down and contain them. This one might be one-part human but mixed with something else, anything else.

For example, elves were deathly allergic to sky metal or meteors. If they bred with a human, that child could use sky metal for a toy but be allergic to peanuts. It was impossible to account for all the variables when dealing with half-breeds. Still, for the most part, all supernatural creatures kept a low profile; no one wanted a repeat of the Salem witch trials.

There was always a governing body that did an excellent job of policing their own. It was for the greater good. The fact that one might have been raising hell for so long without sanction left me a bit baffled. That was part of the reason, but I also knew the complexities of this would succeed in taking my mind off that damn woman.

"When was the last sighting?" I wondered.

"Twelve years ago," the agent replied, sliding a thick folder my way. "She was kid, eleven, thirteen, at the most. She set fire to a small laboratory just outside of Vermont, in which sixteen people died. 'They'll get me.' That was all she said, during arrest, during trial. That was all she said."

"How did you lose her?" I wondered.

"She was deemed incompetent for trial and was sentenced to a psychiatric hospital. The officers that were supposed to hand her over never made it there. All traces of her were lost. Some believe she was killed by the very people she was afraid of. Other's believed she was a victim of sex trafficking and was forced to commit the crime."

His tone made me look up from the folder. "What do you believe?" He clearly didn't agree with that theory.

"I was a rookie and I saw this kid play them all. She was as cold as you are and twice as deadly because no one wanted to believe a child can kill." As he spoke he pulled out his laptop computer, and began typing furiously. "If ever she had a soul, it was long gone. She is was killer, plain, and simple."

Then he turned the monitor so it faced me. The image left me feeling like I was hallucinating. It was her. The same face and eyes that had been frequenting my waking and dreaming moments was on the screen. I blinked, hoping the image would fade like all the other dreams had, but it didn't. Unlike the woman I'd spent the weekend with, this was the child she'd been. She was indeed as soulless and dead as me. The only difference was she had to draw breath.

"No," I said, almost stumbling to the door. "Find someone else. I…I don't hunt women."

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**A/N: Come on, put away the torches and the pitch forks. That technically doesn't count as a cliffie but you have to admit that was an interesting twist. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Complicated**

I ghosted out of the room with Bill staring at me in disbelief. His shock caused a delayed reaction. It was a good thing for me as he only managed to call out to me once before I took to the air. Never before had I pushed my body though the air at such velocity as I did now. I had to get away. My private phone line was ringing as my sister tried to make sure I was well. There wasn't enough rational thought in me to respond. I didn't stop moving until I was at her bar.

The confusion and internal turmoil I suffered was so great, I didn't recognize I'd finally arrived or that my sister talking to me. It just felt like the bowels of the night sky and this world was closing in about me. Walking away from her case and knowing they were only going to send someone else, was making my skin crawl as if I'd been buried under a silver sandstorm. In my chest was this overwhelming urge to find her and keep her beside me so I would know she was safe. Theses urges were powerful and not at all normal for me.

"Eric," Pam said, holding my face in her dainty hands. "What's wrong?"

I just stared at her. It was at that moment I felt a cool sensation chilling my shoulder. I shuddered reflexively causing Pam to hiss and flinch. Officially, I was dead so temperatures short of burning shouldn't register, but this did. It was like having ice, not only brand my skin but reach under it and invade the sight. I pulled my t-shirt off.

There was an intricate pattern where there had once been smooth pale skin. Pam and I both stared at the alien mark. The image became clearer and more elaborate by the second. It was a blue tree that was upside down, the size of if encompassed my entire shoulder. Its roots enclosed it in a wavy sphere that kept it encircled, enshrined almost. Some of the tendrils were red and others were green.

Fuck me, I knew better than to chase after a fairy and this was what I got. A mark, one that was probably cursed, shouldn't feel comforting, but it did. It should be painful or, at the very least, uncomfortable, but it wasn't. What had I gotten myself into? Whatever it was, it was rooted to the fairy, and I knew it couldn't be good.

"This is right barmy," Pam said. Her words were heavy with her English accent.

Having a vampire resort to their native speech wasn't ever a good sign. It said that no tongue to date was sufficient to describe the fuckery she was seeing. My sister was tracing the outline of the mark airily. It was as if she wasn't sure it would jump up and attack her. Not knowing what it was, I couldn't say for sure that it wouldn't.

After all, I was vampire, what else could mar my skin if not something magical in nature. I was convinced I was cursed. That had to be the only other explanation. I felt like I was losing something. Not my mind, but my focus, and certainly a step in the precision with which I always moved. My mood was bad and only getting worse. I felt I was being pulled in a whole other direction.

I got calls telling me the Old Bat was summoning me. I ignored them. I knew why. Sure, I ignored Bill but that was indirectly. Never had I refused an assignment. The reason I gave didn't make sense either. I've hunted women, just not human ones. I'd been warned that we were diversifying.

I could go to my maker. There was no safer place than with him regardless of my enemy. I might not have a choice depending on how deep in shit I was. If he felt I was need, which I was suppressing he would come. That was never a good thing. Pam and I would be safe, other vampires, not so much. They cringed when my maker was anywhere near them, they had reason to.

Two thousand years of undead living left Godric with little patience for bullshit. He had many issues. I guess everyone in his line did. Where I had a 'A devil may care' attitude, he had severe anti-social problems. Most of them involved ripping a limb off vampires, or anyone who rubbed him the wrong way, with his bare hands, and beating them with it. That was where I learned the behavior. In his defense, he was working on it. He was getting better. What he couldn't deal with on his own, his witch turned wife was able to subdue with a single rant or frown.

That night I was waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. When dawn came, and I went to rest for the day, I dreamt of Sookie. This dream wasn't erotic and passionate. It was darker. I saw her huddled in the night, hiding, bleeding, and trapped. I woke prematurely, with this overwhelming urge to go to her, but it was stupid. I would play right into her hands.

A week passed, and the dreams were feeling more real. They were getting bloodier and more violent. She wasn't getting hurt she was shedding blood. There was nothing but bodies littered around her and she stood victorious. The urge to go her didn't wane though. Whatever this was, I had time on my side, so I would wait her out.

The fairy, would come after me to finish the job, and I would make her pay or time would kill her. That thought made the mark on my back sting. I growled at nothing in general. I wondered if she was trying to make me her servant, or perhaps rob me of my will and fill it with her own. I would make an exceptional bodyguard for someone like her who had powerful enemies. It was a farfetched assumption. Zombies were as real as vampires and their will was entirely dependent on those who raised them.

If that was indeed Sookie's plan, then I pitied her because she'd reached too high. She hadn't done enough research. The bond between a maker and their fledgling was irrevocable. If she wanted to usurp the control that came from that tie, she would have to fight Godric for it. Instead of the thought bringing me a sense of satisfaction and retribution, it only made the sting on my shoulder blade worse.

Pushing all thoughts of the damned fairy and the mark aside, I forced myself to return to my day rest. Every day I was waking earlier and earlier, it did nothing for my irritation. When I rose at dusk, Pam was staring at me. I knew that look. She wanted me to go to Godric and tell him everything I didn't want him to know.

"Maybe—"

I interrupted her. "No," I told her. "I knew better but I got complacent." (and high) "I will resolve it on my own."

She looked uncertain but nodded. Pam owed me. I'd kept more than a few blunders of hers a secret.

"He'll never forgive me," she said, looking as uncertain as I have ever seen her. "If something happens to you to take you beyond the veil and beyond recall, he will never forgive me and I will never forgive myself."

"I'll find her and I will end it," I replied.

It was time to take decisive action. The sting in my back grew to an ache as I made my choice. I packed a bag and dressed. With every passing minute, the pain got worse. It was to the point where I had to cradle my left arm to alleviate the pain, but other than that, I ignored it. In my line of work, I didn't trust anything or anyone. I had to undo the mistake I'd made in letting the taste of fairy blood and sex blind me.

I was old enough to know when it came to men that were hard to reach, female bait was often their downfall. Apparently, I wasn't exempt from that fatal fall that came with having a penis. More than anything, it was embarrassing. This was the second time. Shrugging my irritation aside, I continued to make my travel plans. The good thing was that I wouldn't have to search very hard for her.

I didn't have to go looking for Sookie, the bar had yet to open and I didn't know how I knew, but I knew it. She was here. There was no reason for the feeling of comfort and ease that washed over me, but I couldn't help that. The alley entrance of the bar creaked and the scent of blood engulfed the hallway. I was in front of her. My anger and feeling of vengeance were nowhere to be found as her injuries registered.

A knife wound in her left shoulder was barely staunched because her right hand was shaking so badly. Her jeans were torn at the thigh and blood was pouring from the site, so much that it was dripping and staining her shoe.

"Hey handsome…" she greeted through clenched teeth and a weak smile. "Looks like I took you up on that offer after all."

Then her good leg gave out, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she crumbled. The thought didn't register, and neither did the rapid and precise movement of my arms. Catching her had been an instinctive thing. I carried her back to Pam's office.

"What are you doing?" My sister asked, gliding in behind me. Thankfully, she was the only vampire here, but she'd scented the sweet smelling blood. "This is her, I know it is, let her die."

Pam was right. If she died, it would save me the trouble of killing her. If she died, I would be free of whatever she'd done to me. It made absolutely no sense. I really should kill her. This was not something that was part of our agreement when we had decided to share a single weekend. I should, but I couldn't.

My intent to give her my blood was blatant. "Eric!" she said, snatching my arm. The hold would have shattered that of a human. "Have you gone mad?" she fired. "Do not do this!"

I snatched my hand from her grip. Then I bit into my wrist and brought the wound to the fairy's lips, massaging her throat I helped her swallow. That would would help her heal faster but I still rubbed my blood over the raw gaping wounds. The gashes closed and the ache in my shoulder eased. I realized that I wasn't suffering with her. The instant I registered her injuries, a sickly feeling had washed over me. It was like the day I walked away from her contract, I was standing in the middle of a silver sandstorm and my skin was crawling in unease.

I didn't set Sookie down until her rigid posture eased and the lacerations had vanished as if they had never been. It wasn't until then that I looked up from her face. I found that Pam never left the room. My sister was seated behind her desk in her leather chair, absolutely stone faced. She was rotating between shooting Sookie hostile glares and giving me a look of supreme annoyance.

"She needs water," I murmured to myself.

"Throw her in a fucking lake," Pam suggested.

When my sister got like this, it was best to ignore her. She was angry and would remain that way for awhile. Instead of leaving her alone in the room with the fairy, I used her phone to call the bar.

"Bring me a clean towel and two bottles of water," I ordered. "Now."

I could hear the server gathering the supplies before I hung up. Less than a minute later, she was outside the door. Once I received the order, I knew the perfect amount to give her so she wouldn't choke. Then I wet the towel and dabbed at her face and neck. She wouldn't want blood on her body when she woke. I was her servant indeed; I didn't even know where the thought to give her water had come from. I just knew she needed it.

I was willing Sookie to wake up and she did. Perhaps a bit too suddenly, her eyes snapped open. There was no warmth there. Her eyes were like I'd seen in the photo. I knew she didn't know me. It was the shock and disappointment of that thought that left me vulnerable to her attack, that and the speed in which she struck. The last thing I saw were her hands lashing out at my face, and then darkness.

For vampires, being knocked unconscious was distressing. You went from the most powerful creature in the room to an invalid. It was a long way to fall. It got worse because your senses returned one at a time. First, my mind seemed to flicker back online, then I gained one sensory perception at a time. Finally I was able to hear someone mumbling.

"A stick of gum," at least that's what it sounded like and the voice belonged to Sookie. "It's just a stick of gum. A stick of gum."

That made no sense, but it kept her occupied while I recovered. I flexed my fingers and realized that she'd broken my neck. That explained why the sensation in my body was numbed. The nerve, I should have killed her on site. I had turned down her contract and gave her blood. This is what she did the first chance she got. Very well then, she could have it her way. It was true what they say, "Fool me once, I'll kill you so you never get to do it twice."

"Hey," she greeted when I sat up.

"I want to rip your head off," I told her advancing.

"The hostility; totally understandable," she said. "But baby, please, I've been having a rough week. I would consider it a personal favor if you didn't try to kill me."

Though it shouldn't, the term of endearment affected me although not by much. "You broke my neck," I growled, low and dangerously.

She nodded and appeared repentant. "Yeah…I didn't mean to…I mean I did but…," she sighed again, and rubbed her face as if exhausted.

Despite my blood donation, she did look fatigued. I wondered when she had last eaten or slept. I shook the thought aside. It wasn't my concern. No doubt it was the spell that she'd cast that made me feel compelled to care. I was upon her, but I didn't move to do anything harmful. My hands rose but I simply placed them against the wall on either side of her and glared down at her.

The look in her eyes was tender, so like the woman that had given me pleasure, not this literal pain in my neck. I'd long ago learned my lesson when it came to women. There was no way what I felt for her was genuine. I really should kill her. Knowing I should and entertaining the mere thought were two very different things.

"You're pissed and confused and you should be. I'm sorry."

Why her words were managing to dull my irritation was beyond me. From what I learned about her, she was a killer, so lying would come naturally. Yet, I didn't fail to notice that if she were out to end me, then she had her opportunity but she hadn't taken it. It could be that she had a more sinister motive but I couldn't image what that would be.

Despite the homicidal look on my face, she reached her hand up and cupped my face, stroking my cheek with the pad of her thumb. "I woke up in a room I didn't recognize with a strange man over me. I freaked," she confessed. "I couldn't hurt you like that."

Before I could hold the thought back, I voiced it, and I couldn't hide the fact that I was offended. "How am I a strange man?" I asked her. "You've been with me before, many times." I reminded her, because it wasn't like I could forget. "And you came here in search of me."

She lowered her hand, but my face held her warmth for a second longer. "I also crashed the car I stole into a red corvette outside and I stole these clothes because my bag isn't here," she said, pointing to herself. "So I'm sorry about all that too."

She had on Pam's clothes. Not her work clothes, but the pink and lacy ones she wore on her on own time. I looked, my sister was seated in her chair, but her back was to the door. Her form was slouched, limp even. Pam was born in the Victorian era, she didn't know how to slouch. Sookie had broken her neck and staged her in her seat.

"You. Did. Not." I growled.

"This isn't what it looks like, honest." she begged, urgently backing away with her hands up "I can explain."

This time I didn't give her a chance to make excuses. I wrapped my hand around her neck and brought her to my eye level. She didn't fight. She raised her legs and crossed them around my waist. It alleviated the pressure, not that I was squeezing.

"I don't want you to get hurt, sweetheart," she said, rubbing my hand in a placating manner. "Let me go now, please.

The mark on my shoulder moved from a tingle to a burn, but I ignored it. For the first time since I crossed paths with her there was nothing to cloud my mind. For her to attack me was one thing. I was apparently set to let her live no matter how detrimental it was to my survival. Pam was off limits.

"Are you threatening me?" I asked, feeling my anger rise.

"No," she replied. "I'm highlighting the outcome of your current course of action."

I narrowed my eyes at her and squeezed just enough to show her that I'd had enough of her games. Her presence had caused me nothing but unrest. The taste and pleasure I got from her body wasn't worth it, nothing was.

She sighed. "I'm sorry about this," she said, and she truly sounded it.

I waited for her to move knowing that no matter how much my blood enhanced her strength and speed, I would see her coming. She didn't move a muscle, but there was a bright flash of light that seemed to fry my eyes, causing a scorching pain to tear through my skull. Her attack was more than effective. It stunned, blinded, and deafened to ensure her maximum time to flee.

For the second time in less than five minutes, she had dropped me to the least dangerous creature in the room. That was due to my continued obtuseness to the threat she posed. I never saw Pam regain consciousness, but when my vision began to return I saw her standing over the fairy, who was on the floor. My vision was still a bit blurred, but it didn't keep me from seeing how much pain Sookie was in. She was on all fours and her body contorted as if she was being tortured.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I love the fast pace of this Fic. As promised, here you all are. **

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**When it rains, it pours**

Pain and rage filled me. "What did you do to her?!" I roared at Pam.

Seeing Sookie in this much pain made everything she'd done since she woke seem minuscule. I had no idea why or how, but nothing was more important to me in that moment than ending her pain. Her suffering must have ratcheted up because she could no longer remain in that position. She rolled onto her right side and curled into a ball. By the rigid set to her jaw, she was trying not to scream. Not even when she'd shown up stabbed and bleeding to death had she looked to be in this much pain. Her eyes were tear-filled and she stared up at the ceiling as if trying to escape.

All my sister did was blink dumbly at me. I didn't give my sister a chance to respond. I pushed her aside. I picked Sookie up and she couldn't choke back a scream as my hand brushed against her shoulder. Looking down, I saw that a hole had been burned through her shirt. On her shoulder blade was the same mark that had magically appeared on mine, except hers was on the left, where mine had been on the right.

It was identical in the intricate marking to the last detail, except hers was a violent shade of red. It pulsed, and with every beat came the scent of burning flesh. The tattoo just glowed brighter and brighter. There was no blood and the burn wasn't spreading. In all my years, I'd never seen anything like this.

"What's wrong?" I asked, stroking her face in an attempt to soothe her. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Can't hurt you—" she panted, and she could no longer keep her tears unshed.

Her breathing was shallow and sweat was dotting her brow. It was if she was on the receiving end of hells torment, but there was nothing I could see, so there was nothing I could do.

"Say...forgive…cover mark with right palm."

The thought that I could be burned didn't enter my mind. I placed my hand over the sight instantly. The was hot, searing even, but it caused me no harm.

"You are forgiven," I said immediately. The words were magic, her body thawed. "I forgive you." I repeated.

I rocked her against me, keeping my hand where it was, and I told her repeatedly she was forgiven. She clung to me and I was awed as the mark began to cool under my palm. From between my fingers, I watched as the fierce shade of red began to fade to resemble mine. It made the mark look alive as it danced through every curve and line of it. It receded like blood circling a drain. It flowed through every branch of the tree. Finally, her body sagged and the pain abated entirely.

"I'm not even going to ask," Pam said. She dusted her hands against each other. "It's entirely too early in the evening for this level of weirdness. I'm going to work." With that, she walked out the door.

I heard my sister continue ranting as she walked down the hall. "…Me and my big mouth! Move in with me I say. It will be fun I told him." She made a derisive noise. "Then his crazy bitch girlfriend tracks blood all over my office. Don't give her blood I say. Does he listen? Nooo…He never listens. Then he's surprised when she breaks both our necks and steals my damn shirt! The bitch has a fit that burns a hole through my Nicole Miller. Gah…" she went on and on until she was out of hearing range.

I just sat there with the object of my frustration in my arms. She was in no hurry to move and I didn't want her to. I held her against me, again unable to understand the urge, but unable to resist it. Having her so close made me realize how worse off I'd been. There had been restlessness to everything I did because I felt off kilter.

I'd found no peace in resting, feeding, or even sitting in my own skin. Now, the steady drumming of her heartbeat centered me. Her scent soothed me. The weight of her in my arms brought me a deep sense of tranquility.

I removed my hand from her shoulder cautiously. Her mark was now identical to mine. I traced it with my fingertips. It was smooth like mine. For the millionth time, I asked myself what the hell I'd gotten into. The marks didn't allow her to control me, at least not in the physical sense. It didn't mean it couldn't influence my emotions and it was definitely doing that. I wouldn't give any woman this much care no matter how great she was in bed.

Sookie wasn't out to do me harm and the mark on her back—on both our backs—tortured us if we did attempt to harm one another. The distribution of power seemed even. It begged the question, what did she want? What did she have to gain in branding us both? I was a great lay, but I couldn't be that good.

Honestly, if she had tracked me down just for sex that would have been great. It was the intense and sudden devotion to someone I didn't know that was unsettling. I've been here before and it didn't end well. I never wanted to go back. Yet, it seemed the pain from my last encounter from a serious relationship with a human had taught me little; either that or I was a masochist.

I could work through all other aspects of this cluster fuck, except the attachment to her. That, I couldn't deal with. I wanted nothing to do with it. "You aren't going to make me ask, are you?" I asked.

She pulled away to face me. "How do you like your bad news?" she asked.

"In a sandwich," I said. "Put whatever good you have in the middle."

That wasn't the response she had been expecting. She blinked as if stunned, then chuckled softly. Just hearing that sound made me happier than anything in recent memory. "Then this is gonna be all bread," she replied. "Sorry."

I smiled at least she still had a sense of humor. She looked down at her almost chest. Before she could attempt to salvage the scraps of her destroyed top, I gave her my shirt. Then I gave her a bottle of water. I still had no idea how I knew she needed it, just that she did.

"Okay," I said. "Let's have it."

"We're mated," she said, jerking her thumb over her left shoulder.

Pam was right. It was entirely too early in the evening for this level of weirdness. Vampires didn't mate and if we did, it was by choice via marriage, it was often temporary, and came with ulterior motives. If we were mated and it seemed like we most certainly were, it was a fairy thing. Yet, she couldn't have been that in tune with that part of her heritage because she'd taken a vampire home and allowed said vampire to feed on her. No fairy, deaf, blind, or crazy would do that.

After a quick drink she continued. "When we met I was um…"

"In heat." I supplied.

She nodded. "Yeah," she replied, hiding a blush. "It was my first time."

I arched a brow. It wasn't to say, 'Bullshit' it was more like conveying confusion and slight disbelief. "With a man or ovulating?"

Neither seemed likely, but then I thought back to the first night and how she had bled. I attributed it to my roughness, but it had been her innocence. The skill and the way she knew just how to touch me also belied that notion. However, a fully-grown woman would have blossomed long ago, and so that shouldn't have been her first time going through that phase. Every question she answered seemed to add a layer of confusion.

"Both," she replied, rubbing the back of her neck. That was the second time I caught the gesture. It was a sign of discomfort. I wondered what had brought it on. The first night we met she had been carefree and open. Then again being stabbed was a personality changer for some.

"Before that I was asexual. I had no sex drive or libido."

"How old are you exactly?" I wondered.

She chuckled. "Don't worry; you're not robbing the cradle. I mean, mathematically you are, but not subjectively. I'm twenty-three. Eighteen, twenty at the latest is the normal onset age. I thought I was just one of the few it didn't happen to. It's rare but it happens" She ran her fingers through her hair and didn't seem to know how to continue. "When it did I couldn't fight it, so I choose you because I thought you…."

If I had to finish that sentence, I would guess that she thought I could protect her. Before I'd even gotten her case, she had to know the agents were after her. Since I'd turned them down, her case had been reassigned to another Enforcer. Normally I enjoyed being right but this irritated me. It wasn't that she needed help. I could deal with that. I've done a good deed here and there over the ages. Being an excellent tracker made me equally efficient at disappearing. I would have helped her if she had asked. Instead, she had been deceitful about it.

She was lying. It was what all women did. They were the fairer sex, but their power was so much deeper and dastardly. I didn't probe into the deceptive maneuver she'd had used to gain my protection. I'd enjoyed every minute of that weekend. If I hadn't, what difference did it make? We were mated. For the time being I was stuck. Plus, I didn't want her to continue looking into my eyes as she told me lies. That would make me angry.

"Give me the absolute worst of it," I suggested. I functioned best by thinking of the worst-case scenario forward. It helped me plan for any eventuality, or so I thought.

"I'm pregnant," she said, wrapping her arms around herself. "There's a kill order out on me. That wouldn't be so bad except carrying your child short circuits my power. I'm barely staying ahead of the hitters. With every day that passes I'm growing weaker, and slower, and they're getting closer."

More lies but this one was a flagrant insult to my intelligence. I was a thousand-year-old vampire; I'd been shooting blanks since before the Dark Ages. That was part of the freedom that came with immortality; sex had no long-term consequences. I looked down at her. Several things ran through my mind. None of which were profane free, I wanted to tell about all the ways she could go to hell.

Then the dreams I had of her hurting, hiding, and alone flashed in my mind. The memory of her showing up here in search of me, bleeding and broken, and then of her writhing in agony on the floor followed. As long as I was branded with her mark, I felt compelled to shield her. The mere idea of abandoning her made me cringe no matter how badly I wanted to, and I really wanted to.

"Explain the mating and the marks," I said, moving on. "Can they be undone?"

She smiled and nodded. "That's an upside. Death is the only way to break the bond, but there is a loophole. I just have to jump worlds to trick the marks into thinking I'm dead. The downside is I can't teleport while pregnant."

I nodded. I don't know why I believed her, but I did. I think it was because when we had parted ways I had thought her to be like the wind. She didn't want this connection any more than I did. That was comforting. I would protect her and when this was over, we would go our separate ways as we should have after that weekend.

"You're the first fairy I've heard of to willingly bed a vampire."

"I'm not really a fairy, but I'm not quite human either," she said, shaking her head. "I come from a long line of ‛halfsies'; many generations of humans who are part-Fae in some way only mixing with others like them. That makes us a target."

I nodded. There are two sects of fairies, the purists of the water and the tolerant of the sky. They could lie to you without speaking an untrue word. That raised my guard all over again. Their species had been on a steady decline. It made no sense that they fought and killed each other over something as petty as selective breeding. Fairies were perplexing that way I supposed.

"Water fairies want us exterminated but the Sky Prince protects us no matter how little fairy blood we have in us. He takes us in, trains us to fight, to hide, to survive so we can defend ourselves and those who defend us. They call us 'Sin Eaters'."

Not at all what I was expecting. I knew of fairies, with them it was always Water Fae against Sky Fae or Water Fae hunting half breeds. This was the first time I was hearing about this faction. Being a thousand years old that was saying something.

"How does that correlate with your legal issues?" I wondered. "The day my mark appeared, I had been called to take a case with you as the target–"

"Wait, what is that you do for a living?" she interrupted.

"I'm an Enforcer of vampire law."

"This is…so very fucked up," she whispered.

I absolutely concurred. "They wanted you because of your association with something called 'The Outfit'."

From what she said, she was a person of importance in the Fae world. She would know better than to get involved with some crime syndicate that had attracted the attention of high-ranking human officials.

She snorted delicately and rolled her eyes. "Lattesta and his friends?" she scoffed. "Those buttholes couldn't find me in the daytime with a flash light."

I was following everything she was saying but that didn't make much sense. It took my presumptions and threw them out the window leaving me more confused. "So who hurt you?"

"Other Sin Eaters," she replied. "I ran and that is as good as a death sentence. If my own doesn't bring me in or bring me down, then the water fairies will catch up with me."

More confusion. "Your own is hunting you because of your affiliation with 'The Outfit'?" I asked. If she had been raising hell without their knowledge then that course made sense. It was the protocol of many other supernatural species.

"There is no 'Outfit,'" she told me. "I made it up. My first assignment was a lab that was funded by Breandan, Prince of the Water Fae. They were making iron spores and inhibitor collars. I was twelve and I had bad intel. Things went so wrong so fast. It was supposed to be empty but it wasn't and they attacked. If I hadn't fought I would have died.."

She ran her hand over her face as if she could still see it. There was nothing in her voice to indicate how she felt about it. My guess was, nothing, nothing at all. The look in her eyes was exactly like the picture Agent Lattesta had showed me, cold, dead, and so very remote.

"I got arrested so I made up a whole organization. They assumed abuse and I didn't contradict them so they let me off. Every time there was collateral damage or other incidents that Sin Eaters needed to cover, we led a dead end trail to 'The Outfit'. Sometimes we blamed things other people did on the fictional organization."

It was probably wrong of me but I couldn't help but laugh. She literally had an entire task force chasing ghosts in a fog. It changed things. The Pythoness couldn't help the humans bring her down if she had permission from the overseers of her species. It would be like one of them trying to sanction her Enforcers. That was one less complication.

"I didn't get the mark until weeks after you left." I asked.

She nodded. "I was too far away for the actual stamps to appear but I had the symptoms."

"What causes the marks?"

"The mating marks are a side effect of the Waters curse. It kept us from being able to procreate amongst each other. That way they could pick us off at their leisure or wait for us to die."

Going off her explanation, she should have never sought out a male that wasn't like her. I left that whole thing alone for the moment. Her posture was tired, vulnerable; like she had been the first night we'd met. I reached for her and pulled her against me without even thinking to do so.

"What happened just then?" I didn't have to elaborate on what I was referring to.

"Nothing can be gained without sacrificing something of equal value. This applies to curses, spells, just about anything. Curses often backfire or take on lives of their own. This evolved. Breandan cursed an entire generation by stopping reproduction. The marks began appearing as a way to balance the scales. It forces ovulation in women and sex drive in the males all around their eighteenth birthday. The appearance of the marks is the only way to conceive a child. It's wired to do any and everything to keep the pairs together. It does it's best to help them keep each other safe even from themselves."

That explained why thoughts and feelings of violence towards her made left me feeling physically ill. It felt like my skin was being pulled too taut over muscles and bones causing discomfort that I knew would quickly turn to pain. This just kept getting better and better. I sighed internally. All I needed was a silver bow to tie it all together.

"So when I raised my hand to you, I would have been the one on the floor." I asked already knowing the answer.

She nodded. "You didn't let me explain and if you'd done something harsh, you would have hurt without understanding why it wouldn't have imptoved your mood. Figured that wouldn't make you more apt to hear me out either."

"Yet you were able to break my neck without the same consequence," I said.

Her expression was equal parts regret and shame. "That's how I wake up. My body is first, not my mind. I didn't suffer the first time because I didn't recognize you," she said. "I literally can't hurt you intentionally. The thought alone…" she repressed a shudder.

Silence persisted and I saw the expressions on her face run unchecked. I tried to tune into her emotions but even with my blood, I got nothing. There was the constant glow of having her close, but I couldn't say what she was feeling. She told me.

"They took me in when I had nothing," she whispered into my chest. "I understand what I have to give back for the protection they'd given me my whole life," she said, wrapping her arm around her stomach. "I'll go back and I'll continue paying the debt till I die but, I will never let my baby become like me, not ever."

"What are you asking me for?" I asked directly.

"For you to protect me until I give birth," she said confirming my assumption. "Then I will free us both. It would be like it should have been."

There was no mention on what she would do with her child and I didn't ask. What did it matter? With the overwhelming urge I had to protect her and keep her close, I was helpless. I resented her for it, but I hated myself more. For the second time I was falling prey to a woman. At least I saw it coming this time. I knew she was a liar from the beginning. Surprisingly, I found that it wasn't so bad.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**Bring it**

While Sookie was now beyond the Pythones' jurisdiction, I only had a limited amount of time to protect her. When the Old Bat came looking for me, and she would. I had to go with her or she would have to issue a warrant with my name on it. I wouldn't get a choice in being a deserter. The mark on my back made the choice for me and it would only complicate things more because in addition to Sin Eaters, we would have Water fairies on our asses, as well as fellow Enforcers. I sighed internally. I guess there was nothing to do but let, the good times roll.

Sookie and I sat in silence. There was nothing to be said. We were both up shit creek and we knew it. So for the second time we took whatever comfort we could find in each other's arms. Suddenly her head turned left and she stilled. Tension washed over her features. She rose in one fluid motion.

"I need to go. They're coming," she said. "I'll catch you later."

"What happened to needing my protection?" I asked, keeping a firm hold on her hand.

"That won't be until later," she replied. "When I'm too far along to run, I'll come find you."

Her hand rose and she caressed my cheek. Involuntarily, I leaned into her touch. The look in her eyes was that of someone who was parting with what they wanted most. It was there, but I didn't want to see it. It wasn't real. It never could be. It didn't keep me from denying her when she leaned in and kissed me, chastely. Light as the contact was, it eased me in a way nothing else could.

Maybe if she hadn't done that, I would have risked letting her go. It was the sensible thing to do. It would allow me to avoid trouble with the Pythoness before it happened. After all, Sookie had proven more than efficient at fighting. I should trust her to come back to me when she was in need. It would give me the distance I wanted from her but after suffering the separation, I wasn't looking forward to reliving it. The mere thought made my skin crawl. I hated that I couldn't help it, but I hated the constant anxiety even more. We were mated so she wasn't going any damn place.

"I have a problem with that," I told her.

"I can take care of myself," she replied.

She had set herself up and me, being me, I just couldn't resist. "As evidenced by the ass kicking you took earlier, I'm sure you can," I said dryly.

"That was because I was counting on powers I didn't know I'd lost."

I shrugged. "You say, 'Potato'. I say, 'Po-Ta-to." I scoffed. "Point is you got your ass kicked."

She opened her mouth and I thought she was going to continue arguing her point, futile as it might be. Then the expression on her face became thoughtful instead of annoyed. "I think you're asshole." It sounded like a question and I had to smile.

"I think you're right." I agreed.

All I had were the two daggers that were normally in my boots. Pam had more than a few weapons in her office. I raided her stash. Not knowing what was coming I took what I could easily hide.

"I don't very much care for being told what to do." Sookie, snapped at me. "I asked for protection, not for you to swoop in with your cape and save the day. Last I checked, I didn't hand over the reins on life."

"Part of being asshole is selective hearing," I said absently. "I tuned out after the fourth word of all that but you can repeat yourself if you like."

She didn't so I took her hand and began moving us to the main floor of the bar. The entire way there she tried to reason and talk her way out of it, but I ignored her and just pulled her alongside me. Whoever was coming in search of her would find that she wasn't alone. I was the top Enforcer for the law of vampires. My sister was a sheriff in the area with more than a few vampires under her control. My maker was the Visigoth, and his wife was a skilled witch. If they wanted to pick a fight with her, then they had better come prepared.

Since I'd taken residence in my sister's area I had never had a human with me in the open. As I mentioned, I had developed quite the following. It consisted of an even amount of women and men. I entered the main floor of the bar and all eyes turned to me. Then they moved right. The expression on their faces was the same.

"Oh, give me a break," Sookie grumbled under her breath.

I eyed her and she just shook her head with a frown on her face. I pulled her to sit with me at my reserved table, but I ignored her and everyone else. Danger was coming, and I needed to signal my sister. I caught Pam's eye. She disappeared for all of three minutes. When she reemerged, she looked every bit the sheriff she was. She was in black jeans, a white t-shirt and black heels. The leather jacket she wore was no doubt meant to hide a wide assortment of weapons. She flashed a signal to a vampire who was acting as DJ. The music came to an abrupt stop.

Then Pam got on the stage and let out a shrill whistle. The sound cut through the chorus of protests. "Everyone with a pulse," she said, turning the lights on. "You fuckers have five minutes to get the hell out. After that I'm declaring open season on your bitch asses."

The cows seemed too stunned to move. Never one to bluff, Pam flew from where she was and landed on a nearby table. Her fangs were fully exposed and she was in a pose that showed all the grace of a predator. She snatched the closest human to her and lifted him as if he were light as air. She brought him to her eye level. Instead of feeling afraid, he was teeming with excitement. I was the only one who knew how amused Pam was.

"Did I fucking stutter?" she asked. "Out!" she roared, flinging him across the room.

That was all the incentive the remaining patrons needed. There was a mass exodus. Pam's vampires hung like portraits along the wall. Some tossed weapons to those who were unarmed.

"I'll say one thing about you night children," Sookie commented. "You guys are always down for a fight."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Are they close?"

She shook her head. "No." Her frame was wrought with tension. "They're here."

Oh good. I didn't have to wait long to see the group of cowards who was hunting a pregnant woman. That was definitely a slice of tomato in my sandwich. They entered simultaneously using all the entrances. Then they lined in a near spear formation as if they owned the building. The blatant disrespect was enough to have all seven of Pam's vampires flashing fang. Blood shed was all but guaranteed.

How many people does it take to pick on a pregnant fairy? The answer was nine. I couldn't hide how impressed I was. I wondered if their numbers were for her alone, or if it was because she had sought refuge in a vampire bar. If that wasn't the case then just how powerful was she?

"All this is for you?" I asked her.

She nodded. "No," she murmured. "There were thirteen this afternoon."

I didn't miss the way she wrapped her hand around her middle. She moved so she was partially hidden behind my back. When a tenth fairy joined, she moved to stand in front of me. The reason was simple. He was powerful. Despite being in an open space filled with vampires, this newcomer had eyes only for her.

"Preston," she said. There was something akin to heart break in her voice.

"Hello, my love," he said with a nod.

At that, my fangs tingled with the need to extend. I repressed the urge. For all I knew, this was a man she wanted, but couldn't have because she had landed with me instead.

"Don't force this," she begged. "Please don't, Pres. I don't want to fight you."

"Of all the people in all the worlds do I think I want you as my opponent?" He moved to the head of the formation. "You have left me no choice!" he bellowed, "You wounded your brothers and sisters. All that you swore to uphold, you have betrayed. What other recourse have you left me with? What am I to do?"

Her bottom lip trembled and her eyes watered. "It wasn't my choice. I swear to you. It wasn't."

Her tears seemed to have reached him. "I love you. I have always loved you. Come back," he said, holding his hand out to her as if the room didn't separate them. "You are valued still. The elders do not want to put you down. They will punish you, but it will be less severe if you surrender and end all this now."

"This isn't 'All My Children' or an afterschool special. You're either going to leave or you're going to get your asses handed to you," Pam sneered.

I was glad because with every word they exchanged, my anger toward Sookie grew. If there was anything I needed to know that told me this situation was similar to Freyda, this was it. I was supposed to be her mate, but she was professing to love another man in my presence. I'd already been in a love triangle and the best to be in that situation was on the outside looking in and that was exactly where I wanted to place myself but I couldn' mating mark wouldn't allow me to take the quickest way to break the bond, which was death, otherwise, I would have taken the option. Instead I was stuck wanting, protecting and resenting Sookie. I had a feeling that those feelings wouldn't go away. They wouldn't quell until I was free of her and this damn marks.

A predatory look fell over the face of the fairy named Preston. "Were I you, child of the night, I would silence myself," he warned,

"Feel free to make me, bitch," she said, unsheathing a dagger.

Even for a fairy, Preston was fast. In fact, I thought he was using restraint in the way he moved. I moved toward him, but Sookie pushed me back. Then she flittered away from my side so quickly, I barely saw her. All this happened in the smallest fraction of a second. When it stopped, Sookie's hand was around Preston's neck. In the same frame, she slammed him to the ground hard enough to leave a crater at the point of impact while her knee pressed into his sternum. With one hand, she flung him away much like Pam had done with the human not too long ago.

Clearly she and I had more to talk about.

"I have always been stronger," she said, and the expression on her face was unrecognizable. It was sharper than a sword and cold as ice. "I have always been faster. Don't make me hurt you. I don't want to."

Despite the thrashing he just received, the other fairy flipped to his feet and into a neat crouch. Blood was running down his face, but he looked more betrayed than damaged. His forces fanned out and so did ours, but he warned them off. I knew if the odds had been better, he would have attacked. We would have had casualties of our own, but we would have won in the end.

"Have you lost your mind?" he asked looking at her. "You would defend them, them over me?!"

In response, she turned her back to him and bared her shoulder to show the mating mark. That seemed to take this Preston person from betrayed to confused.

"How is that possible?" he asked. "I thought…"

"I was just late, but it happened."

"Tell me who," he asked through clenched teeth. She didn't answer and that must have been answer enough. His eyes went wide and he backed away as if she had turned into something toxic. "You didn't…you didn't, tell me you didn't."

"I can't undo it," she said, as if resigned. "You know I can't. I love you but you know I don't have a choice."

"Last warning, get lost," I said, appearing at Sookie's side. "Please refuse so I can make you."

My threat might have been more effective because I was taller or because I had an incredibly large hunting knife in my hand. I didn't know, but they filed out in as a neat a formation as they had entered. The door closed and Sookie hunched over. Her hands were braced against her knees. She looked as if she had run a mile in a minute. I held my hand out at the exact moment that she reached for me. It was just an automatic thing. I wrapped my arms around her and skirted backward.

"This was the most action we're seen in ages," Pam said, grinning at her people. They all looked disappointed. It said that they were looking forward to a full-out brawl. Pam turned her eyes me. "But get bent all the same."

"Thank you," I told my sister.

"Are you going where I think you're going?" she asked, with another hostile glance at the fairy.

I nodded. "No other place is safe."

She sighed. "Go to Bon Temps, to a bar called Merlotte's. There is a mutt there who owes me."

She moved to me, kissed my cheek and handed me her car keys. The fairy had crashed her car into the red corvette I had rented during my short stay. I suppose I could add that to the list of things she had turned upside down. No one would be the wiser as we exited the parking lot. There was still enough traffic to conceal our departure.

"I need my bag," Sookie murmured as I loaded her into Pam's silver BMW. "In the stolen car."

It took me a tenth of a second to retrieve the item. I had no idea why she wanted it. It seemed like a raggedy old thing. I recognized it as the same rucksack from the hotel so long ago. It also felt empty.

"I need a BLT sandwich, a bottle of milk, and a bottle of water," Sookie said.

Seeing I was still waiting for one inebriated human after another to make their way on the main street, I spared a glance at her. This wasn't a restaurant, and I sure as hell wasn't about to be taking her orders. However, she wasn't talking to me. I saw as the limp bag filled. She reached and retrieved all that she had ordered.

"Let's pretend that I have no idea how you did that," I said to her.

She rolled her eyes. "It gives me anything I want that can fit inside it. It can't be magical and it has to exist on this world. The catch with that it can only give me as much as I can put in mentally. The things I need that it can't provide, I've stashed elsewhere and it teleports them to me, when I ask."

"Where did you get it?" I asked. It wasn't that I wanted one. I didn't need it. I asked because like her sector of fairies, I've never heard of such a thing.

"Bought it off a pixie with a bad Angel dust habit." Her answer was delivered between hearty swings of milk.

I couldn't help but laugh. That was all kinds of fucked up. Then again this whole situation was. Still I was curious. "Angel dust as in cocaine?"

She finished chewing a bit of her food before she answered. "Angel dust, as in the dust the shakes from the wings of Angel's when they flap their wings."

All I could do was shake my head. That was just something I was going have to ask her about later. It was on the list right under Preston, the douche bag. That would have to wait until I got us where we had to be. With such enemies after us, there was only one place that I knew that was safe. The problem was it was in Hawaii, which was 1,500 miles _and_ an ocean away.

Before we could even worry about crossing the Southern Pacific Ocean we had to make it to California. That in itself seemed impossible. We could take a flight I supposed. That seemed so easy I knew it was hazardous. I was hoping Pam's favor would be enough to at least bring us half way.

The ride was silent and it was my suspicion that Sookie ate slow as to avoid conversation. But by the time I had reached the little town of Bon Temps, she had eaten and provided herself with a new outfit, tags and all. Temptation on two legs is what this woman was, just like the first time. I shook the idea aside. It was that thought that landed me in this fucking mess. Still, it was impossible not to notice as she walked ahead of me and into the bar. She was dressed casually much like she had been the evening we met.

Unlike the west coast with its endless good weather, it was winter and even in the south, there was a chill in the air. She had on grey low-rise jeans that did incredible things for her round bottom and over that was a form-fitting waffle knit top. The look was completed with a black leather jacket, black knitted hat, and black boots. I had to smile. That was my standard attire, save everything was black. I couldn't say if that made me angry, resentful, or delighted.

* * *

**Um...so remember that promise I made about daily reviews, (ducks behinds the Vikings back) ot might be in danger. I'm considering a major rewrite. It happens more times than you can image. I have an idea and a clearly laid path and then the characters and events just don't cooperate. They take a life of their own and pull me in a different direction. I'll do my best. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Ready: Set: Go**

At 6'5", I was used to attracting attention the instant I walked into a room. With the woman beside me, I felt like I was an exhibit at the zoo. I'd be the bad guy if I flashed fang and yelled "Boo!" The gawking was so bad that we were seated a full ten minutes before the bartender attended to us.

"Evenin," she greeted. "What can I get you folks?"

Beside me, Sookie winced and her face wrinkled. I wondered if she was jealous. Then I wondered why it pleased me.

"Sam Merlotte," I replied.

Confusion flashed across her features. "Um…well, Sam won't be in for another half hour. Anything I can get you in the meantime?"

"No," I said, waving her off.

She really seemed to be irritating Sookie. At least that was what I guessed. A different sensation settled over my skin. Unlike the unpleasant feeling that came with her pain, this one tingled over my skin. As the bartender continued to openly stare at me, I wondered if the sensation was brought on by jealousy on Sookie's part. Having to register this new thing brought my mind to all the things I was yet to find out. In fact, it brought to mind my irritation.

"We'll wait outside," I rose to my feet and pulled Sookie with me.

I opened the car door for her, but Sookie sat on the hood instead. "Who is Preston?" I wondered why I was regretting not fighting him. I wondered why I wanted him dead. Then I shook the thought aside. This was how I knew that the mating mark was turning me into something I wasn't. I didn't do jealousy, in fact I was into sharing.

"My friend, or, at least he was," she murmured. A far off look washed over her face, then she blinked it away. "I lived with his family after my parents died."

"Why didn't you go to him when your time came?" I asked, wondering instead of me, "Why didn't you try to mate with him since you were already so close?"

What I was very curious about was why she sought out a vampire. She had a faery who already loved her and she loved him, despite the fact that they hadn't slept together. That was a feat for most women or perhaps he was already mated and so neither of them got who they wanted.

She gave me a look that not only questioned my intelligence but also my sanity. "I didn't want to mate," she said. "I never did."

That made sense. This was why she'd chosen a male who was the least suitable to impregnate her. Any child she might have would live a life riddled in danger as hers was now. Well, just because I understood it didn't mean I believed that she carried anything I sired.

Sookie's posture was as tired and vulnerable as she had been the first night we met. I reached for her and pulled her against me without even thinking. It was confusing. I was still irritated, but holding her just seemed more important. I thought she would get cold and want to move, but she didn't and we didn't say anything else.

That was how the shifter found us. He spared me the scowl that was customary between our species, and I didn't hiss at him. There was just so little that incited me at that point.

"You have two options," I said as hello. "You and yours can escort me and mine to where we need to go, or my sister will go medieval on your furry ass."

"Well, the Raven Sheriff can introduce her medieval to my primeval," he replied.

"Or," Sookie said, stepping forward. "Or, we can turn down the testosterone just a tad."

I was sure he knew she was there, but the shifter hadn't looked at her fully, not with me in his path. Now, he stared and it irritated me. I shook the thought aside. I didn't do jealousy. If he could protect her, then I would gladly hand her over. The thought made my skin crawl, but it wasn't that bad because I wasn't thinking about killing her, just getting away from her. The level of discomfort was vastly decreased.

"I'm Sookie," she said, walking over and holding out her hand. "That's Eric. Pam said we could call in her favor with you."

With a parting glower at me, he shook her hand, which only made me angrier. Feeling angry only made me even more pissed. I was feeling more emotion since I met her than I had in decades. I hated it and I resented her for it.

"I really need to get away from here," she said, looking at him in the eyes. "Far away."

Her voice wasn't seductive as to cajole him. She sounded honest and sincere. Given her situation, that was exactly what she needed. Still, it sounded like she was playing him; it was what most women that had the body and the cunning did.

"I do this and Pam will clear my ledger?"

I nodded. That should have been the end of it, but Sookie just couldn't keep from petting the damn mutt on the head.

"I'll pay you a hundred thousand now, and a hundred more when I arrive safely. You handle the travel and security in the day. Eric can own the night."

"What's the catch?" he asked, eyeing her. "I mean, what has you afraid, if not vamps?"

She smiled, amused but entirely tempting. I knew I wasn't the only one to notice by the way the shifter fought an idiotic smile. "Mister, I got ninety-nine problems," Sookie said. "Fangs ain't one."

He nodded. "You've got yourself a deal." He held his hand out to her.

I was expecting Sookie to shake it immediately, but she hesitated. Maybe she didn't like him? Maybe she wanted me to kill him? It wasn't likely but I was still hopeful.

"Don't take my hand if you don't mean it," she said. "Please, don't."

I don't know how I knew, but I felt like she was offering him an out instead of killing him for violating his word later. I knew she was capable and would do just that if he tried to double cross her. The warning was due to the fact that she didn't want to kill.

He smiled warmly. This time when he nodded at her his head fell slightly deeper. Instead of his right hand, he crossed his hands at the wrist with both his little fingers extended. I couldn't fully repress my growl. In the span of only two hours she had professed to love another man, made fast friends with this shifter, all the while claiming she was carrying my child, but admitting she never wanted either of us. Talk about a web of lies.

Sookie mimicked the hand gesture and they shook on it…kind of. All the while, I struggled with my jealousy. With us being mated, I supposed it was normal. After all, Sookie might have been jealous that the waitress wanted me. That was placating. It was also reassuring that she didn't seem to care about me anymore than I cared to care about her. She wasn't looking to tie me down by accident or by force. We were both just…stuck with each other for a while.

We sat in the bar and waited as Sam circled his bandwagons. By nine, I could sense a werewolf outside. It wasn't until the scent of two wilder smelling creatures arrived did Sam signal for us to leave. Once we got outside I found us in the midst of a real party. In total, there were four two-natured, a vampire, and a faery.

The werewolf was Alcide Herveaux. I found him tolerable even though his aversion to the fang was obvious. He didn't hide it, which I respected. It made me believe that he would do his job regardless.

Calvin Norris was a were panther who had seen too many winters. It should make him the weak link but it did the opposite. The experience in his eyes and the scars on his body proved it. Then, there was Quinn the tiger. He who looked like a cross between an eight ball and a genie. I took an immediate dislike to him. It wasn't because he was a were; I've found some of that species that I liked. My dislike for him was based on one inadvertent and minor incident. Sookie had walked out to the car to get her bag and I heard him call her "Babe." That single word went through me like a silver knife, and it was downhill from there.

That night our party of six left Bon Temps and began our journey out of Louisiana. Our mode of transportation? A mobile home hauled by a truck.

Our course was west. Our destination was Kahoolawe, Hawaii. It was the smallest of the eight volcanic islands that made up Hawaii. It was where my maker was. More importantly, it was a refuge when all else was lost. It was a place where not even the sun could do me harm. That was the good news.

The bad news was that Hawaii was several states and an ocean away. I didn't need Sookie to tell me that she couldn't sail the seas for fear of the Water Fae. She sure as shit couldn't take a plane because those of the Sky were also hunting her. Therefore, I was on a cross-country journey, in a mobile home, with four two-natured and a faery. There were so many jokes packed into that scenario that I sincerely didn't know where to begin.

The team of two-natured cut the traveling time. It minimized the risks and the chance of discovery. While I rested during the day, they would drive. During the night, Sam would shift and fly several miles behind to search for a tail. I would fly ahead to search for potential ambush. It sounded easy enough, but I didn't for one second think we weren't going to find trouble. We were just trying to get as much warning as we could.

I found that my tie to her was dulling the ones I had to my maker and even my sister. I could feel them, but where there should have been a rich plane of connection there was only familiarity. Never in all my years would I have thought there was something that could supersede the tie between a maker and their child, but this accidental tie to a faery had done the unthinkable. It was as if the laws that governed this world had been rewritten for us. It wasn't Godric who made me what I was, it wasn't gravity that held me to this world; it was Sookie. There was nothing else.

It was intense, and for a wanderer like me, it was almost impossible to comprehend. Trying to tamp down the natural or unnatural tie made me as irritable and disgruntled as I'd been after the initial mating. Then, her half was calling to mine and vice versa, but we were both too far apart to hear. I had to make my peace with the fact that she was temporary. This tie was nothing but a twist of fate that would be undone once her child was born.

Sookie used me for a mattress as she had every other time we had spent the night together. She looked at me and I knew she wanted to sleep. I held my arms open, she came, and straddled me. Her legs wound around my waist and she rested her weary head in my chest. She was asleep before we hit the highway.

I should move her to a more comfortable place, but I needed her right where she was. I removed my jacket and threw it over her as she slept. I didn't remember when my fingers began combing through her hair or when I was caressing her sleeping face. Yet, when her body began to tense, I noticed. It was as if a vise had encompassed her whole body. With every breath, the tension in her body grew. I knew her eyes would be snapping open and she would attack.

Three of the weres were asleep and Sam drove. Up until then the ride had been quiet. I began talking to calm her. I really would prefer not to have my neck broken for the second time tonight. It didn't keep her from springing awake. As I expected she didn't know me, and when one of her fists came at me, I dodged it. I couldn't avoid the second, so I swatted her hand aside.

I moved faster than I'd had to in ages to take hold of both her wrists. Even if I could, I wouldn't hurt her. I shook her gently, thinking it would bring her around. There was still no recognition, but the look in her eyes changed from cold to terrified. Somehow, I knew that was so much worse. That was the last thing I saw. This shit was going to get very old, very fast.

I woke up at first dark the next evening, in Houston. I could smell my own blood on me though someone had tried to wipe it off. My shirt was also gone and I stunk of were. Sookie was standing at the foot of the coffin that had been provided for me. Her head was downcast, and the expression on her face was sorry; not sorry as in apologetic, but sorry as in pathetic. I couldn't fight the urge to make her feel better, though I wasn't over what she had done to me.

"So I see you're the classic abusive type," I said, pointing to the bottle of blood in her hand. It was a liter, it was warm, and it smelled human. She had also brought me clothes. "First you beat me up, then you buy me presents."

Her eyes went wide, and she waved her hands in front of her to add emphasis to her denial. "No!" she replied hastily. "No, I didn't mean it. You know I didn't." She leaned forward and patted my leg. "I'm sorry."

I arched a dubious brow. "That's what they all say." Now, I was just messing with her. "Until they do it again."

She turned ten shades redder and she was sputtering out explanations so fast, her words were tripping over each other. "I know that's how it looks, but I'm not like that. Even if I could, I wouldn't beat up on you or anyone else. I'm—"

I couldn't keep my features calm anymore. My lip twitched as I fought a smile. Her mortified expression was the funniest thing I think I'd ever seen.

She huffed and shook her head despondently. "I can't believe I fell for that," she sighed. "You're an asshole!"

I couldn't help but grin. "Precisely."

She frowned at me, but in the end, she couldn't help but laugh. I knew she couldn't help it. Looking back, fighting her was probably the worst thing I could have done. While I didn't condone spousal abuse, the thought of me being on the receiving end of it by someone a fraction of my age was hilarious.

She handed me the bottle of blood and next to her, it was the best I'd ever had.

"Do you need another?" she asked.

I stopped and assessed my damages. I found that I did need more. "What did you do to me?" I asked. She had said she was getting weaker. If this was weak for her, then her enemies were in deep shit.

The lightness of the moment clouded. She looked away, but didn't answer. "I'll sleep alone."

I heard her exit the trailer. We were at a rest stop. I shadowed Sookie, but we didn't speak as she ate. I noticed she didn't eat or drink anything that didn't come out of her bag. I found I had been happy to joke with her a few minutes ago, but the feelings of resentment and irritation hadn't faded. Those had just been thirty seconds in what were hours of strife. True as that was, when she reached for my hand I gave it to her, and I draped my other arm around her shoulder. After refueling, showering, and stocking up on supplies, we were good to get back on the road.

The next night there was an uncharted stop. I rose at first dark, found the trailer was parked, and Sam and I were the only ones in it. This was usually the time when we did our aerial scouts except the convoy wasn't moving. This couldn't be good.

"Why?" I asked, feeling annoyed.

"She didn't say," was his useless reply.

"And you allowed it?" I asked calmly. All I really wanted to do was rip his head off.

Sam shot me a disparaging look. Some bodyguard he was; he was pathetic for backing down to a pregnant woman. "By that I assume you've never argued with her," he said.

No, but I was about to start. I was awake last night. If she was tired then, she could have discussed it with me, and I would have charted a better place to stop. It would have been somewhere more public where our enemies wouldn't be able to fight as hard because of collateral damage. Instead, we were in the middle of nowhere at an inn with several cabins. In short, it was the perfect place to be raped, stabbed, strangled, or done away with in some unsavory manner, and no one would be the wiser. I growled under my breath, this fucking woman.

I didn't even have to guess what cabin belonged to Sookie. I didn't have to follow her scent. I didn't have to conjure her face in my mind and let that guide me. This was something else. I wanted to find her, so the mating mark on my back found hers. That only added to my irritation. The fact that her door was unlocked had me wanting to strangle her, until I saw her.

Desire, devotion, anger, duress, consternation, and resentment were emotions I understood. I have experienced them before, but not all at once. For someone who had long ago opted to have the emotional range of a teaspoon, it was just too much to process. All those emotions and many more washed over me as I saw the position she was in.

Sookie had stolen the shirt I had discarded at dawn. She wasn't wearing it as some women would have. Apparently, she didn't know what normal meant. Instead, she had dressed a body pillow in it. She was sleeping on top of it much as she did with me. She didn't look like she did when she slept, vulnerable, beautiful, and peaceful.

This time, she also looked restless and exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn't slept in days. Maybe she hadn't. Two nights before she had attacked me and didn't have me to sleep on. Last night she had retired to the back of the trailer. I simply assumed she had slept but clearly, she hadn't.

Seeing I preferred to remain conscious tonight, I exited. After closing the door behind me, I knocked on it. I knocked loud enough for her to hear, but not enough to frighten her. I knew I still startled her because it took her a minute to answer.

"You're good," she said. "Come in."

* * *

*****Buckle up, we're going on a road trip*****


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**Won't Back Down**

I entered and she was drinking water. "I want to yell at you," I told her honestly. "I hate that the mating marks are making it impossible for me to do so."

She rubbed eyes and shook her head. "Don't work that way, baby. You can yell at me plenty and I bet that you will later. Right now the urge just isn't as strong as the other one you have to let me sleep."

I thought about her words and checked my thoughts. She was right. Now that she mentioned it, I had no real idea how it worked. I'd just been focused on the end goal; it would be undone and soon. We hadn't had privacy to talk, also thinking about it made me angry.

"How does it work?"

"What's my favorite color, blue, pink, or green?" she asked.

I stared at her wondering what that had to do with anything, but then the answer rather flittered into the forefront of my mind. I had no idea how I knew it. It was as if I was facing a fork in the road. Something vague nudged me left.

"Green," I replied.

She nodded and I stood there awed. "How do you know I wanted you to sleep?"

"Because it's what I need more than anything at the moment," she told me. "The marks allow one to see what the other needs. Our wants and preferences are visible to each other, but not as clear. You didn't have to think about letting me sleep, but you had to think about what color I liked."

I wasn't sure if not knowing would have been better. This unsettled me on a whole other level. "So you know that I prefer…briefs to boxers?"

She seemed to have to think about it. "I don't know," she said, as if confused.

She didn't because I'd been trying to confuse her. My preference was neither. I wore nothing under my jeans. I had too many questions to ask and she was tired. I went over to the bed, lay down, and held my hand out to her. I knew she wanted to, but she hesitated.

"I know how to avoid getting hit, bob and weave, but don't fight back."

She gave me an awkward smile to hide her embarrassment. "When you feel it starting, trace my tattoo lightly and talk. The sound of your voices helps."

I nodded. "When all else fails, I'll play dead."

She chuckled, came to lie on top of me, and I wrapped my arms around her. Why the hell did this feel so normal? How could I have an easy rapport with someone I didn't know and resented? It didn't matter. It just was.

"By the way, the thing with the pillow…"

Sookie chuckled and nipped at my chin playfully. "Don't mention it…ever."

I laughed and began talking to her. Before I was done with the Latin alphabet, she was dead to the world. When dawn was close, I left her and replaced my body with the pillow. She began stirring as I moved her and I did what she suggested. It worked. I watched her, thinking how much of a pain in my ass she was. Then I went to ground. I actually missed it. With the scent of were so heavy in the trailer, it was no surprise.

Everyone was ready to go the next evening except Sookie. She had awoken at some point during the day. She was dressed for travel. She must have come in here to wait for me to rise and then dozed off. I watched her. Her body was just as tempting as always. Her beauty wasn't just outside; the inner one shone as brightly. That was why I had noticed her hair first and then her smile.

Honestly, I wanted her to be shallow. She was used to having the things she wanted. No doubt, she would have fine hotels and cars. Yet, she had never complained about having to slum it while we traveled. She seemed perversely delighted by the road trip. It showed her in a light that wasn't just versatile, but wrapped her in a cloak of mystery. That was the last thing I needed.

With all the things I was feeling for Sookie, unwilling or not, I didn't want to add curiosity to the list. I wanted, no, I needed something to dislike in her so I could push her further away. That was what I should do, but watching her sprawled out like that only made me want one thing. It wasn't sex. I mean, it was, but if only just to hold her closer, as I hadn't since the night we met. The scent of Were wasn't clouding her airy fragrance. I couldn't help it. Crawling into bed, I lined my body with hers and nuzzled her neck. She might wake wanting to hit me, but I would risk it.

"Eric," she sighed. Her eyes were closed, but her legs parted for me. Her body was already heating and moistening to my touch, light as it was. I lifted her chin and brought her lips to mine. The effects were the same. She wasn't in heat, but her flavor still managed to be palpable on my tongue. I wanted all the same things from her that I did our first time. I wanted to conquer, I wanted to taste, and I wanted to claim every inch of her. It made everything else in the vicinity fall away.

Sookie's eyes opened. Like I suspected I got hit but it was a single jab to the throat. If I were a breather, I would have been choking. Such as it was, it hurt but not much. Overall, a small price to pay for having her. Her other hand came at me but it stopped midair. Her eyes were cold and her body stilled. After a few blinks, she came back. I was looking at a woman that only knew me, but she wanted me.

"I hit you," she murmured caressing the side of my neck. "I'm..."

I didn't care. I knew she wanted to speak, but I couldn't let her. Talk would have to wait. I wanted her too much. I claimed her lips and she kissed me back with as much fervor as she had our first night.

Sookie was tugging at my jeans as if they were on fire and she needed to rescue me from them. Then she couldn't seem to spare the energy, so instead she reached under and took me into her hand. The warmth, softness, and expertise of her dainty hand was enough to make me come. I pulled her shirt over her head and tore her panties. Her surrender was immediate and intense. It only made me want more.

There was nothing but her, me, and the spark between us. I was caressing the heat between her legs. All the while, my lips never left hers. Nothing and no one had felt good after her. There was nothing I could recall that measured up to her. Her breasts were thrusting against me in demand. Her nipples were hardened and begging to be suckled. I tweaked and plucked them between my fingers. My fingers parted her folds, and we both groaned. She was so wet and so ready for me, she was already gushing. I knew I could make her come even before I entered her and that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to look into her face as she climaxed.

Sookie was wriggling her hips to keep my fingers from her sweet spot.

"Wait," she said, pulling her lips from mine. "Baby, wait."

"Why?" I said, looking into her eyes, but I did slow my advances. I withdrew my finger and sucked them into my mouth. The taste of her pleasure on my tongue was something I'd ached for, for so long now. She watched me as if mesmerized. "You want me."

She nodded. "So bad, but I don't want the consequences that come with it. Sex strengthens the bond. It would take it from intuition to probability. This is temporary, so we shouldn't. It would make it harder in the end."

She kissed my cheek, and somehow that chaste gesture put an end to the moment in the way that nothing else could have. I let her go and lay beside her until my erection became less massive. Then we got back on the road.

So far, we had found no trouble, and that made us more wary the closer we got to our destination. Two days later, we were in northeast Dallas. We had been heading west. I wasn't sure if I would continue this course or if I would go north. After another refueling stop, we were filing back into the truck. The wind blew and with it came danger.

One second Calvin was bringing up the flank, the next he had burst out of his clothes. He let out a roar so vicious my ears rang. Sookie looked confused as I pulled her behind the line of two-natured. She was looking around as if there was something she should be seeing but wasn't. Anyone who had a four-legged form was wearing it, except Sam's came with wings. He had chosen the form of a griffin and was hovering over our perimeter.

"Stop," Sookie said. "No matter what you see, hear, or feel, don't believe it and definitely don't touch it; if you do, you're dead."

The minute she said it, I saw it. It was the sum of all the fears I had. I saw Godric. He carried the mangled and bloody corpse of his wife and he was screaming, asking me why I had killed her. Sookie was wearing a wicked smile as I knelt at her feet, hopelessly doing her bidding. I looked and the nightmare drew closer. Godric had fallen to his knees in utter despair while he was looking up at me with his hand out, seeking solace.

"A stick of gum, a stick of gum," Sookie muttered. "It's just a stick of gum, and after a hundred chews the stick is done," she repeated it over and over again like it was a mantra, a prayer, and a desperate plea.

It was the second time I was hearing this, and I had no idea what it meant. It annoyed me. I don't know why it was enough to pull me away from my nightmare, but it was. Then again, we had been snapping at each other. Well, I'd been snapping at her while I understood why I couldn't have her, I still wanted her body.

"How the fuck is chewing gum going to fix this?" I hissed.

"It's a mnemonic that helps me cope with stress," she fired back. "By the way, thanks a bunch for breaking my concentration."

Now I turned to her with my irritation full blown. "Oh, my apologies. I was just getting force-fed my deepest fears, but sure by all means, go on and sing the 'Doublemint' jingle. I'll wait."

She was just staring back at me as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're being a fucking jerk!" she said. "And I want to slap the shit out of you!"

Now we were facing each other. I could feel her irritation, not in the mark that connected us, but the expression on her face. Her head was low, but somehow she held my eyes despite the height difference. It was so predatory and nothing like her, or at least as I'd presumed her to be.

"Do it," I goaded. I crossed my arms and tapped my fingers on my forearms to wait. "No, nothing, " I mocked, after a minute of her just fuming. "Yeah, I didn't think so."

It took me longer than it should to realize that we were no longer struggling to face our fears. They had turned into the lovers spat. I groaned at that realization. Eric Northman no longer did lovers spats. A stone couldn't argue with the wind, and that was exactly what I was doing. I couldn't seem to stop myself.

Our argument was enough to distract us all, everyone except Quinn. The tiger's whimpers were turning into snarls as he was inching forward. He was going to lose it. The first person to see it was Sam. He leapt down to take hold of him with his sharp talons, but he couldn't contend with both the speed and strength of a tiger. Both Alcide and Calvin were dead on his heels, but he had too great of a head start toward his demise. Good riddance to bad rubbish was my thought.

"Stop him," Sookie shouted, elbowing me.

"Why the hell would I do that?" I huffed. "He's such a douche, 'Babe this, Babe that," I shuddered. "He annoys the shit outta me."

"Eric!" she shouted.

"Oh fine," I muttered. "And for the record, I have super hearing, so no need to shout."

I swear, if not for the mating tramp stamps, I wouldn't have obliged her. I really did want Quinn to be beat into pulp just for me to make tiger jerky. I got to appease my craving for brutality by wrapping my arm around his neck, and feeding his face to the pavement. Instantly, it was lights out for the tiger. It took a few moments more, but then we were all free from the hold of whatever had taken hold of us. Godric's tormented face faded into the wind.

When it was over, no one had the energy to drive. Facing your worst fears had a way of sucking the life out of you, I supposed. We filed back into the diner. No one spoke, not even Quinn, who enjoyed hearing the sound of his own voice. Then again, he was still in the truck and very much unconscious. Sam wasn't whistling. We had been mentally raped, and it wasn't a good feeling. We decided to spend the night in the motel close by. Sookie had some questions to answer; not only from me, but also to the people we'd hired to keep us safe during our journey.

"What in the name of hell was that?" Sam asked. He was still visibly shaken.

"Elementals," Sookie said grimly. "They're just feelers sent out when the scope is too wide. Attacking one is like ringing the alarm."

"Who sent them?" Alcide asked. "Someone did."

"Mister, you don't want to know," she replied. "You best get real spiritual real fast because you never want to find out."

That was it for conversation. A little grim for my taste, but no one asked, so I didn't offer. Sookie and I checked into our room. There had been no conversation on if we would share one. We both had assumed it, despite our earlier disagreement. It didn't matter what I felt. The only way I would be comfortable in my own skin was if I had her in my arms. She got ready for bed, but she didn't offer me a blood even though I needed another. She should know it.

"I'm going out for a drink," I said, in case she wanted to offer.

I thought she was sleeping because she had dressed in an oversized t-shirt and her pulse was steady, but she nodded yet she didn't offer. She was in the fetal position, huddled in the blanket. "I'm spent." she told me. "I don't have to energy to drum one up for you."

Her explanation made me less angry. "Sleep," I said, heading for the door. "I'll be back soon."

"There's no rush, you know," she said, turning to face me. "In case you find that you want more than blood from someone you meet, you can be with them if you want. Mating doesn't prevent that."

It was something I'd been wondering about. Since I was sexually frustrated, my tone was a bit sharper. "No, I can't," I replied. "I tried." The thought entered my mind and it both reassured and infuriated me. "Have you?"

"Yes," she told me.

"And?" I was going for casualness, but that single word was loaded.

She rubbed the back of her neck. This conversation was deteriorating fast. I could feel it. "I could and I did," she said. "Just once before my brand showed, and before I knew I was pregnant," she hastily added. "But if you couldn't, it wasn't because we were in the middle of the bonding process. It was because you didn't want to, not really."

Apparently Sookie had found someone else she wanted badly enough. I appreciated her honesty, I really did. What I was feeling now was pure unmitigated rage. I wanted to find the man she had been with. I wanted to rip his fucking head off with my bare hands and shove it up his ass.

"I don't care," I said with a careless shrug.

"I know that's not true," she said. "If it makes a difference, I did it because he reminded me of you."

Nope, I still wanted to shove his head up his ass. I clenched my teeth to keep my fangs retracted. I pulled my jacket on with a lot more force than necessary. I was finished with this conversation.

"A, I just said I don't care. B, if I did, it would only be because of the stamp on my back."

"It doesn't work that way," she said calmly. "It's just heightened intuition and inclination on how to protect and provide for the other person, but it can't control or manipulate thoughts and feelings."

"Go to bed," I ordered. "Go to sleep before I say something I don't mean, or do something I'll regret."

"Like what?" she said, sitting up. "Are you going to tell me that you would have killed me the night we met if for one second you thought it would lead anywhere close to here? You want to tell me you resent me, that you wish you never met me? More than anything, I bet you want to tell me how much you hate that you can't kill me now, and undo the worst mistake you ever made."

I wasn't sure if she said that because she knew it was how I felt, or if she felt the same. Perhaps she thought her words would hurt me. If that was the case, her effort was wasted. No woman had that kind of power over me.

"I didn't say it, you did."

She nodded, and lay back down. I left the room, but blood was the furthest thing from my mind. I just needed space away from this bullshit. I needed as much space from her as I could get. Flying to the roof of the hotel, I was able to keep watch and think. It wasn't really thinking, more like brooding or sulking than anything else. I was furious, hurt, and jealous. I wanted her and I resented.

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*****This double scoop is because the last chapter didn't show as much as I wanted. But still don't count on double features*****


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Okay, I might not be as good at explaining things as I thought. In chapter 8 while Sookie is explaining the purpose and origin the mark, she clearly states, "The appearance of the marks is the only way to conceive a child." There is no way the child could be anyone else's. I am often very mutual in the stories but I'm not sure why some readers are against Sookie, like Eric she never wanted to mate. That's why she chose a vampire, her odds for mating and getting pregnant were slim next to none. **

**These two are 'Lone Wolves' that got unknowingly stuck together and the situation is getting progressively dangerous. Their proximity is forced, their personalities are strong and will undoubtedly clash and there is a whole lot of sexual tension and sudden intense and confusion feelings. No one should feel like I'm blasting them off. I'm just trying to explain things that I feel I failed to do in the writing. If anyone thinks I should change or edit the summary, let me know. I would hate for folks to feel like I'm "Baiting and Switching" or misrepresenting. **

**Anyway, as promised here is the daily dose. So far so good, I'm proud of myself for delivering on my promise so far. (Crosses fingers,) **

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**Broken**

The next night, I thought I would still be angry, and so would my mate, but she wasn't. Sookie was waiting on me with a bottle of blood in hand. It was human, just the right temperature, and she served it with a smile that made me feel as if I was the only man she desired. She always had a smile to offer me. It warmed and eased me, and I hated every ounce of that comfort. Clearly, sniffing the stench of were for so long was making me delusional.

The way Sookie smiled at me was the same way she smiled the guards that protected us. It was the way she smiled at cashiers and passersby in the street. She was simply beautiful when she smiled. I was sure everyone who had been on the receiving end of it felt like they were special, too. It always tasted good, not as good as her but better than anything could, considering , I was sniffing two-natured filth.

Our journey continued. The fastest way west from Louisiana to Hawaii was to go through Texas, then cut straight through Mexico toward the Gulf of California. It sounded easy enough, but there were several difficulties we were facing. After the incident at the rest stop in Dallas two days ago, we'd had no more trouble. When we hit Socorro, Texas, we had to decide if we would go northwest toward El Paso and enter New Mexico, or shoot straight into Mexico.

Hawaii and Mexico were autonomous in the division of Vampire Kingdom of the New World. Vampires in Hawaii governed themselves. There was no Regent. They protected one another and maintained their own peace and they took care of law breakers to retain their autonomous status. Mexico was just as independent, but ten times more hostile. It was probably the only place in the world where the vampires were all the same race. Yes, it was that bad. My title as an Enforcer for the Pythoness would do no good because the vampires in Mexico didn't recognize the Ancient One's authority. The Pythoness allowed their preference. It was either that, or wage war to subjugate them. Many of them never got over the loss of the Texas Revolution. It wasn't worth it. Instead, she formed a truce with them under penalty of war.

Mexican vampires could have their way if they did not allow their country to become a safe haven for fugitives from the rest of the New World. For a bounty, they caught, and or, executed any lawbreakers who entered their land. Flying would allow me to avoid Mexico entirely. The one variable I couldn't account for was the most crucial; I didn't know if any vampire there flew. Chances were there was at least one. Ordinarily I would risk it, but with a pregnant woman on my back, I needed to find another way.

"We want to avoid two-natured in that country same as you," Alcide said. "They tend to bite first and ask questions after everyone is dead and bleeding."

"We should take New Mexico and then Arizona," Sam said, dragging a stick in the dirt to illustrate our path. "It's longer but safer."

As our trek continued, I found the lack of physical distance between my mate and me dulled the emotional ties of the mating marks. The less Sookie needed the more peace I found. I welcomed it. Still, every night when I woke to her playing cards or laughing with one of the two-natured on duty, it managed to irritate me. She didn't want them. The way she treated them was polite and friendly, but not overly so. What riled my fury was the fact that they wanted her. I had a claim to her, but it was a claim I didn't want, so I refused to allow it to exert influence over me.

"If it comes to a fight during the day," Sookie said. "I can make sure we win."

Calvin Norris, the ever silent of the two-natured, spoke. "With all due respect, I'd feel lower than dirt having a pregnant woman fight my battles. I'm sure they all would too."

"We have to try now before I get any weaker," she said. "It's the fastest way. If things go bad, then we head back north of the border."

"You want to throw a Hail Mary in the second quarter," Alcide said. "That should be a last resort."

I knew what made the most sense. I could sense the differences in her. They were slight and would be unnoticeable to anyone else, but I knew her body well enough and had insight to her fatigue. She truly was getting weaker. It wasn't just the physical changes I noticed; it was her mental and emotional changes as well.

Things that didn't tire her out at the beginning of the trip were wearing on her now. It wasn't noticeable to everyone to everyone else but I knew. The instant she became fatigued that gnat in my head returned to tell me so. . It was reasonable that we should risk danger knowingly when she was strong, as opposed to when she was weaker and the threat was unexpected. It rankled that I knew what the best thing was, but I couldn't even begin to contemplate the idea. I couldn't do logical; I had to do what posed the least harm to her.

Sookie had gone to bed, so I then had planned the course of the journey to avoid Mexico entirely. Avoiding that lawless land was the way to go. I offered the two-natured an additional hundred thousand on top of what Sookie had already offered without my permission. I rose at first dark the next night to pure mayhem. It was an all-out brawl. I wasn't in the trailer. It was burning. Bodies of two-natured littered the desert and vampires were closing in on the scene. I was confused. Unless New Mexico had dropped the first portion of its name, I was in Mexico, the one place I had charted our course to avoid.

The first thing I searched for wasn't my knives or danger. It was my mate. She was in pain and her fear was heavy. It felt like I was being burned and stabbed. Sookie was terrified. It was because she thought her child would die. The panther was trying to talk her through it. She was huddled in a corner with Calvin Norris holding her. It wasn't only to protect, it was to calm.

"Send him to his room so he'll calm down, and you can do the same." The voice belonged to Calvin Norris. Unlike Quinn who loved to hear himself talk, the panther spoke so rarely that the sound of his voice was distinct when I heard it.

There was a breathy, "Okay," from her and a whimper. It wasn't of pain, it was of fear.

"Forget about them, suga'," he murmured, clouding her view of the fight, but there was nothing he could do about the sound. "The baby only wants out because you're scared, and you're scared because you think your baby wants out. Both of you are wrong and if you can't calm him, he'll die."

"I'm trying," she said with a sob. "I'm trying."

Her tears hit the air. That faint fragrance shouldn't have registered despite all this blood, but it was all that registered. Her hopelessness and despair shot through me. I knew the look on her face. It was like the one she had worn while the mating mark had tortured her for raising her hand to me. She was trying to escape, but she couldn't manage. Danger was too close. She couldn't disengage, so her body continued the natural process.

I snarled and flew over the scene. Someone was going to bleed. That what my mate needed. She needed her child to calm down and remain in her womb. Flying Sookie away should have been the first thought in my mind, but it wasn't. I wanted to show her that she was safe. I wanted her to see that her enemies were no more. That was the last thought I had before the bloodlust came.

All I saw were figures, faces, and weapons. I dismantled them all. I flew into a rampage that was worthy of my status, not only as an Enforcer, but an S7 vampire. I moved so quickly that not even I took note. I could feel the blood coating me. I could hear the cries for mercy, and the screams of pain. All that was left was the two-natured. I was about to attack them. Then one voice called me back.

"Help," Sookie whimpered. "Eric, help."

The tenor of her voice wasn't desperate or frightened. She was simply calling me to her. It was as if a switch had been flipped. I saw her curled into a corner. Thankfully, her pain was less. In the darkness, his eyes like emeralds, the panther had shed his human form and he sat at her feet. I didn't have to tell him to move. He stood aside, so I could gather the unexpected object of my affection into my arms. I was ready to fly her away, but she tapped my hand. I knew she wanted to say goodbye.

"Calvin, Sam, Alcide, Quinn," she nodded her head as deeply as my embrace would allow. They returned it. "Thank you," she said.

She pulled out another bag from inside her own and I knew it held the agreed-upon sum. Despite the magic propensities of her bag, I'd assumed I would be paying the price to get her to safety. That wasn't the case. She had their payday ready. In this moment, it was safe for her to offer and for them to take it.

I'd thought she would be afraid, but five minutes in the air, she was asleep with her face burrowed in my chest against the whipping winds. The carnage below provided all the cover I needed to get us across Mexico and back into the states. I moved as fast as my body allowed to get us into Arizona, bypassing New Mexico entirely.

All during the flight, my fury was growing. That shouldn't have happened. The fact that it had would bring me to the attention to Pythoness a lot sooner than anticipated or desired. Of course, that wasn't what I was most concerned about. It was the sleeping woman in my arms.

I'd already broken into the hotel room I wanted and I'd tucked my mate into bed. It wasn't until an hour before dawn did I go to the lobby to pay for our rooms.

I was in the middle of prepping a place to rest when Sookie woke. It wasn't quite dawn, but it was close. "Hi baby," she greeted.

I frowned. That term of endearment had affected me since she first whispered it in my ear, just the memory of it made me tingle and ache.

"How the hell did we end up in Mexico?" I asked. "I explicitly ordered otherwise."

She shrugged. "The order was made to them, but not to me. I rose, made the call, and they followed."

I snarled and my fangs extended spontaneously. The nerve of this woman! What should matter was that she was racing toward our common goal. That wasn't the case. What made me angrier wasn't her contradicting my orders. It was the fact she had endangered herself. I shouldn't care about that but I did, more than I did about anything else.

"You didn't make a judgment call." I yelled. "You made a fucking mistake."

"I'm getting weaker. If we had run into that kind of trouble further down the road, I would have been useless. I wanted us closer to where we had to be," was her calm retort. "And that's what I did. So with all due respect, you can take your opinion wrap it in sunlight and shove it up your ass."

I don't think I've had anyone go back and forth with me like that in a long time. I wasn't thrilled by the prospect of meeting my smart mouth equal. I was pissed, so I left. Sookie and I didn't speak to each other. She fell fast asleep. When dawn came, I rolled under the bed when all I wanted was to spoon with her in bed. That was stupid.

All she would do if I couldn't calm her was hit me. The good part was if I were dead for the day, I wouldn't feel it. I had no reason to trust her solely with my safety during the day. If not for the mating marks, I wouldn't. Yet, I placed my eternity in her hands. I left her a note informing her of where I was, in case she woke and was in search of me. I was such a fucking idiot. I rose at first dark the next night, so I supposed I wasn't as stupid as I feared.

We stole a car and used it to continue our travels that night toward California. Our speed was cut in half due to sun but it drew less attention.

It took us a night's trek to go from Douglas, Arizona to Quartzsite. With the weres we would have been halfway to San Diego by then. Sookie couldn't spare the energy to drive and watch over me during the day. I drove us to a place where we could find safe lodgings for the day and we only traveled at night. It was an hour so before dawn when Sookie and I checked into a hotel in El Centro, California. That was where the Old Bat found us.

Like always when she came looking for me, I felt her in the air before I saw her. I looked around the motel room half expecting her to be seated at the desk but she wasn't. She was outside the door. She must have known I knew because she didn't knock. She simply stood outside, patiently waiting. Before I went beyond the veil, I really had to find out how she always managed to find me.

"It's okay," I told Sookie, as she moved to stand behind the door. "This is a different kind of pain."

I opened the door and there she stood, hands folded in her lap, head held high. Somehow, she still managed to look like a waif in the cool night air. There was just something in the way she held herself. She moved me aside without really touching me. Her authority was blatant and I moved. It was that, and I didn't want her hanging out in front of the door.

"I seem to be suffering some technical difficulties," she said in hello. "Perhaps you can be of assistance. I pointed my gun, but it did not shoot. When it did, it was in the entirely opposite direction."

I rubbed my face because for once, I didn't have the energy to devote to antagonizing her but I gave it a good try. "Misfire," I suggested. "It can happen sometimes."

Since our bargain, I had never refused an assignment. She turned her head toward me as if my words didn't compute. They probably didn't. Then she spun on her heel, and faced Sookie where she was still lying in wait in the corner.

"What is that?" the Pythoness said, walking toward her. Her face was pulled in grimace as she tried to identify Sookie's scent through the many others in the room. She looked both confused and alarmed.

"Is it a full moon?" I asked the Pythoness.

"You guys probably have things to discuss." Sookie said, moving for the door. "I'm gonna go," I caught her eye so she would see the look on my face that called her a coward. She shrugged to show no remorse on the issue.

"Sit down," the Pythoness ordered.

"I'm just…"

"Sit," the Old Bat repeated. Her tone was the kind you heard when she was saying, 'Off with his head.' You couldn't help but give it your full attention.

"Sitting," Sookie replied raising her hand and finding the closest chair. "Okay, consider me sat."

Slowly the Pythoness made her way to Sookie. As not to frighten her, she lifted her hand and tilted her chin upward. It was as if she was looking for something. Her fingers traced the curve of Sookie's face. Apparently not finding what she sought, she leaned in closer as if she were going to kiss her. Had it been anyone else I couldn't say I wouldn't have claimed their head such as it was, I was smiling at Sookie's discomfort.

"Boy, this is awkward," my mate mumbled.

At that exact moment, the Pythoness dropped her hand as if Sookie's face had suddenly burst into flames. In the same instant, she let out a horrified hiss and skittered across the room. Her back was against the wall. One hand was thrown over her mouth as if she was afraid she would scream, the other was thrown over her un-beating heart.

"Was it something I said?" Sookie said, trying to smell her breath as if it offended.

"That is not only a Sin Eater, it is a God Killer," she pointed at Sookie as if she were sunlight wrapped in silver.

"Want to tell me what that means?" I said. I was getting tired of her odd behavior, amusing as it was. "Or will you bay at the moon first?"

"The nether will rise and the heavens will fall," The Pythoness said with a haunted look in her eyes. "The darkness will come and it will devour us all."

That shit didn't sound at all good.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Okay, alright I'm scolding myself. I will send myself to my room immediately as penance for not keeping the time table. (Hangs head in shame...gives puppy dog eyes) **

**This chapter packs a lot of information and it might help clear up confusion from past chapters. **

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**It Just Keeps Getting Better**

Neither Sookie nor I knew what that meant. Seeing there was no place for this conversation to go but down, I began with getting the worst news out in the open. "We are mated."

I hadn't expected her to know what that meant, but if the horrified expression on her face was any indication, she knew, which surprised me.

"No…that is…no," she whispered. Then slowly, cautiously, she walked over to me. Her frail fingers traced the mark through my shirt.

"Oh shit!" she hissed. If the situation weren't so fucked up, I would laugh at her use of profanity because it was an absolute first but I knew anything that could reduce her to this spelled a pain in the ass for me.

"And more Sin Eaters are after her," I added.

"Oh shit!" she repeated. At this point, she was shaking her head as if it would break the illusion. Well, she could join the club of, 'Impossible'. I was in line to be President.

"For more good news, she's pregnant." It was assumed so I didn't need to specify that it wasn't my child.

It was at that point that the Old Bat crumpled to the floor. Sookie reached for her, but I waved her off. In her state I didn't know she would react to someone unfamiliar touching her. I carried her and sat her on the bed. Clearly, she was choosing now to have her mid-millennium crisis.

She just kept hissing, "Shit, shit, shit…" she went on and on like that for a while.

"What's a God Killer?" Sookie whispered, looking at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Why are you whispering?"

She gave the Pythoness a pointed look. "I don't want to freak her out."

"It seems a little late for that," was my sarcastic retort.

"I would most certainly say so," The Pythoness replied. "Allow me to explain the gravity of the situation."

She sat straighter with the same regal, elegant veneer that painted everything she did. Then she began one incredibly long and sordid tale.

"Once the Fae walked this world in abundance and their species thrived both here and in their home world. Deforestation, industrialization and natural toxins of this world, " she waved her hand. "Take your pick; their numbers declined. Then they fought a war against our kind eons ago and became nearly extinct."

That last bit of information was something with which I was actually familiar. It was more like an old tale vampires passed around for fun. It might have been incredibly petty, but I liked that for once I knew something Sookie did not. Since she came back, I'd always been a step behind. Yes, it was petty, but comforting all the same.

"The War of the Night?" I asked. The name was cheesy, but no one consulted me as they were picking it out.

The Pythoness shook her head. "It was written in our history as such, but the true name is 'The War for the Worlds."

I supposed she could call it what she wanted. It didn't change the fact that Fae were owned. I didn't know how it had begun, no one really did. All I knew was that a large group of vampires opened a heavy can of whoop ass on some Fae. Be they of the Water or the Sky, I did not know.

"The disadvantage of the Fair Ones is obvious. It takes three days to raise a full-grown vampire, and almost fifty years to rear a Fae child to adulthood. That fight cost them dearly so they admitted the battle was lost, but not the war. Ever since, both the Princes of the Sky and Water collaborated, and devised a plan to help them win."

"That makes no sense," Sookie said, shaking her head. "The Sky isn't at war with anyone but the water and the people that help them hurt half breeds."

Even with all her outward signs of refusal, I felt her doubt. Her doubt might not have run deep, but it was there and now she was being forced to face it. If she had truly believed, she would have never run.

"You're wrong. Fishes don't fly and birds don't swim. The Princes of the Sky and the Water can't work together."

"You are a faery who is mated to a vampire; that alone proves that there are exceptions to every rule." The Ancient One said dismissively.

Sookie opened her mouth to issue a rebuttal, but she had nothing. The fact that we were bound together was plain crazy. While she could deny everything she heard, she couldn't reject the tattoo on her shoulder or mine.

"What exactly are they trying to win?" I asked. "What have they to gain?"

"The moon and the sun," she said.

"Are you being literal or figurative?"

"Very literal," she said, with a grim nod.

Okay. "How exactly do they plan of doing that?" I asked. "What has the power to grasp the moon, never mind the sun, which a ginormous ball of fire?"

She shook her head. "This, I do not know," she murmured rubbing her temples. I couldn't tell if she was trying to calm herself, look into the future or if she was still freaking out. Either way, I didn't ask.

"Get me parchment and a quill." She ordered.

Reflexively my mouth opened to give her a smart-ass response but it was just too easy. "I have motel stationary and a stubby number two pencil." I handed her the items. "Make do."

Blind as she claimed to be, The Pythoness began sketching a photographic portrait. The diagram she was drawing was something similar to the diagram of the earth's solar system, except they formed a circle and had series of ethereal looking threads that connected them. Above that were the clouds of heaven and below were the flames of hell.

"This is the universe," she said, holding the picture out to us. "The law that binds it is known as The Origin. The Origin is absolute. No power in any and all the worlds will ever overshadow its law, and it is upon that law that all worlds are created. There are seven worlds that run parallel to our own," she pointed to the very top of the page where white clouds floated above and a fiery abyss raged below. "There are many names for heaven and hell, but the souls of all species shared the final resting place." I'd only heard a fraction of this tale. Already I knew it was well beyond my pay grade.

"All the laws of all the worlds connect," The Old Bat said, pulling me from my ruminations. "The link isn't always reciprocal, but it does exist so long as it does not violate the law of Origin. That is why sprites of Eindelle can travel into this world but giants and dragons of Underhill cannot." she tapped at the small darkly shaded sphere on the left.

That sounded like a raw deal. "So almost every other creature in the universe can dock here and raise all kinds of hell, but we cannot visit theirs."

She nodded then drew two straight lines that began from the center of each world. One ascended toward heaven and the other descended toward hell, and they formed a dagger's tip. While all the others faded along the way, the lines that originated from earth reached both surfaces. Yes, definitely above my pay grade. I ran a hand through my hair. I had no idea what a headache felt like but if it were possible, I would have one.

"Our Law of Origin is the strictest because it binds all the others."

"Is it me, or does this sound strangely apocalyptic?" I wondered.

The expression on her face was grim. "It sounds like an apocalypse because it very well could be."

One more thing to add to my list, though I suppose I should bump this up a few notches.

"They need to literally take hold of the earth's moon and sun. Once they have them, they can dictate the laws of this world and it will allow them to control all others. They can make the ocean the sky, regrow forestlands, purity the oceans, take away gravity and oxygen, or keep the sun up nonstop. Nevertheless, I think the goal is to make all the worlds like they once were; make it like their home so their population once again can flourish. Those who cannot survive the change will perish."

"That's not true," Sookie murmured.

It was as if she was speaking to herself. Her face was empty, her tone was desperate. She wanted us to tell her she was hallucinating or that she was crazy. That didn't happen and so I felt her anger rising. I pulled her against me. It wasn't to comfort her; it was to restrain her. The other vampire in the room was ripping apart all that made her who she was. Being as stubborn as she was, she would have a need to defend it. She regained control and put the width of the room between herself and the Pythoness.

"Niall wouldn't ever do that. He isn't a purist. He doesn't care about power, just protecting those in danger from Breandan." She nodded as if that would convince her and us. "That is the only reason we fight." she looked up at us and our silent, stony expressions were all she saw. "It is…right? Right?"

"Lover," I said, going over to her.

She flinched. I couldn't tell you why. But the sickly, prickling feeling washing over me was telling me she needed something. I had no idea what would do if not my touch. That was often enough.

"It is," she insisted, nodding but she was trembling all over.

The Pythoness waved an errant hand. "What they told you, and what I have just said are not contradictory." She explained coolly.

I was starting to get the feeling she didn't very much care for my mate. While I understood it, it was making my aggression flare. She had recently been talking about diversifying to help other species in the not to too distant past.

"Have you ever faced a full blooded Water fairy?" she asked Sookie. "Have you ever fought an enemy that wasn't human, undead, daemon or one of your own?"

Sookie looked at me and she was begging me for help. I had no idea of what to do. Several emotions ran across her face, a twisted mixture of, guilt, shame, pain, anger, and in a cocktail of other sickening emotions that I couldn't even identify. I held my hand out but she refused to come to me. She was taking shaky steps backward as if to distance herself from the what she had heard.

"You know I speak the truth. In your heart, you feel it. It is why you show compassion to your targets. It is why you have always questioned authority. It is why you ran. They did not train you to fight fairies of the Water. You are to defend them from the night children because it was us that stopped them from destroying our food sources so long ago. They did not lie; they cannot. They deceived, two very different concepts"

"No," she said.

"Sin Eaters are the Fae equivalent of vampires. You were not born, you were created. So were your parents and their parents before them." she continued. "You are the result of countless centuries of selective breeding,"

"Shut up," Sookie said in that icy tone. "Shut. Up!"

"That would not change what or who you are," the Old Bat said. "By your power level, your lineage is old, which is surprising. You often die young."

"Niall is my great grandfather…he…he wouldn't," Sookie mumbled.

From the sound of her voice, that one thing might have given her pride, but now it made bile rise. I knew that was her last shred of defense against her world caving in about her. Her mouth opened and closed as if she wanted to speak, but afraid she would vomit.

"If that were true, he would have strangled you with your birth cord before you drew your first breath. The blood of the Sky Prince is not in you. Niall would never. To create a Sin Eater, they steadily feed a human woman fruits from the eternal tree of Faeria all throughout her pregnancy. The child would be more than human, but not really Fae. It would be powerful, useful, but most of all it would be expendable. When they usurp one unborn child, they breed them with others like them to avoid drawing attention to the process. Over several generations, the offspring get stronger."

I looked at Sookie. Her eyes were tear-filled. She seemed to be in a place where nothing and no one could reach. She was literally falling apart. The damage was so bad that not even the mating mark knew how to guide me. It told me she needed me, but it held no indication as to what I should do. It was like facing a mental fork in the road. It was the same one that told me what her favorite color was, except this time, there was no nudge one way or another. I was as lost as she was.

"Are the marks cursed?" I asked the AP. Aside from it being unwanted, it didn't feel wrong on me. I had asked Sookie, and she had said no. Now I wanted to double check, because there was much she didn't know.

The Old Bat shook her head. "The marks are for population control. They appear when a Sin Eater's power reaches a certain level, not a certain age. This way only their strongest can breed amongst each other. The weak ones that do not die in combat never mate and no one thinks anything of it."

Sookie made a noise that was between a gag and a cry. It felt as she was being ripped apart. There was nothing I could do, and not having information we needed wouldn't help her.

"That you two have mated is…" words failed her. She ran her hand over her face as if she was tired though it wasn't even nine in the evening. "You were made to kill each other off. Eric, you are the top Enforcer for the Ancient Pythoness and Vampire Law. She is a God Killer. Once you fought on opposing sides of a war that decided the fate of this world. Now, I fear you will be forced to do so again."

"If you knew all this," I asked. "Why haven't you done anything about it?"

She opened both her palms out to me in a gesture of capitulation. "It is a limitation of my ability. I cannot see my future and as I am part of this world. I cannot see it's fate. Even if I could, how do you suppose I get into Feary to thwart their plans? The pure breeds do not come to this world. They send the Sin Eaters to do their bidding."

I sighed. This just kept getting better and better. I had unwilling and unknowingly mated with a faery, and now said faery was claiming to be pregnant with my child. If that wasn't enough, she wasn't just a Sin Eater, but a God Killer. We were on the run. She was all but dead weight as I tried to get her to safety. Our haven was still several thousand miles away. My mate also just had her entire identity ripped to shreds. I supposed adding Armageddon to that list was fitting.

I felt it as all of this registered with Sookie. I saw as she accepted it, and I knew she couldn't handle anymore. I let her go and she ran to the bathroom. She heaved and was violently sick. Her turmoil clearly wasn't physical, it was emotional. They had used her throughout her whole life. They had made her sacrifice everything for their cause, a cause that would have ultimately taken her life.

"You must make a choice, Eric." The Pythoness said, rising to her feet. "If you do not return with me, I must put out a warrant with your name upon it."

I sighed. It really just kept getting better and better.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**Hurt**

As I'd feared, in addition to the Sin Eaters we would have Enforcers after us. I would also no longer have her protection. I didn't resent her for it either. She didn't just have to uphold the law. While I always bent the rules, I never broke them. Making an exception for me or anyone else would call her integrity into question. She was the law. Going completely off her grid had to result in a warrant that bore my name. What with the end of the world coming, we just didn't need that. I still had one more question:

"What exactly is a God Killer?"

The Old Bat shook her head and rubbed her eyes. The milky film that coated her eyes seemed thicker. It looked as though she was fighting to keep her sight, which was odd because she was already blind.

"All I know is that every realm has one, and a God Killer can end their world or it can save it, but I know not how."

I might have reached my rock bottom because I took that bleak bit of news as something good. "Then how do you know it's her? You could be mistaken. She might just be a powerful Sin Eater like any other." Even as I said it sounded weak and little desperate to my ears.

The Pythoness gave me a look that stated plainly and snidely, 'Are you fucking serious?' I suppose I wasn't. "In her right eye, I saw heaven and in her left, I saw the bowels of hell." She said.

The Pythoness held her hand open for me when she reached the door. Knowing what it would cost me, I shook my head and took a firm step back. There was no question about what my choice would be. It was a reflex that was as natural to me as breathing was to a human. Keeping Sookie safe was paramount. Once her child was born and our bond was broken that would no longer be the case. We would once again be strangers, strangers who should have never been anything more. That was later.

In this moment, I seized the opportunity to add a layer of protection for her unborn child. I couldn't trust myself to do so later. We would soon be marching to our places in a war that neither of us had a hand in declaring. What side she would be on? I had no idea. I knew where I would be. It would be where the Pythoness sent me.

"How much of a head start can you give me?" I asked.

"I am an old lady," she said, opening the door. "I forget things, sometimes for one, two days at a time."

"In return, I will not recklessly endanger or maim any of the Enforcers you send after me," That would also help my case in court. I knew at some point after this was all done, I would turn myself in. "In addition I make you this offer. Until you release me or the true death claims me, I will sit in your cabinet and wear your colors. I will become of Captain of the Enforcers."

The Pythoness stilled and looked up at me. "What do you desire in return?" she asked.

"What are you not willing to give?"

"I will not look into your future or hers. I will not dismiss the warrant that will hold your name."

I nodded. I didn't want any of that. The future was a fickle thing, and having her take a glimpse for me would only show me things I didn't want to know. Either that or it would have me fighting something that should be.

"When her child is born, you will take him to your home, and keep him safe. Ever will he and his be under your protection. You will treat him as you treat your own."

With one more look toward the bathroom where Sookie was washing up, she nodded her agreement. "I accept your terms." She was on other side of the room when she added, "I hope you know what you are doing."

For some reason that statement made me laugh. It was probably because I had no fucking clue what I was doing. The Old Bat must have known, too, because this was the first time that she didn't insist I see her to her car.

I left Sookie alone as long as I could. After a half hour of silence from the other side of the door, I heard the shower turn on. Twenty minutes later, with no end in sight, I went in. The door was locked, but it didn't stop me. I mangled the knob and forced my way in.

My mate was huddled in the tub, naked, sitting directly under the jetting stream. She didn't blink, not even as water entered her eyes, and rained down her face. She stared blankly ahead and she looked like the soul had been snatched from her, her spirit had been torn asunder, and she was numb.

From the amount of steam rising from the air, the water had to be piping hot. She didn't seem to notice. The first thing I did was adjust the water temperature. Then I simply sat beside the tub. I didn't say anything. I didn't touch her, I could see that she was barely holding what was left of herself together. "This is where we part ways," she said, as if speaking to herself.

"I am going back, and I'm going to kill them all. Niall, Breandan; everyone that had ever fed me this lie, and anyone that gets in my way."

The expression on my face was a little doubtful, and more than a little condescending. It was a front to hide my horror. Since she found me, the only thing she wanted to do was keep her child safe. Not to mention I just signed away my eternity. I would kick her ass myself. "I suppose you are going to beat their fists with your face and bleed all over them to subdue them?" In her condition, that was all she could do. "Effective."

"I will be the last thing they see before they all die," she said.

Her expression was nothing like when she woke from a night terror. It wasn't cold. A razor's edge didn't glint in her eyes, and murder wasn't on her mind. On her face was a look that I had worn once so long ago. She didn't accept what was true, not after she had lived a beautiful lie.

"You don't want to kill them," I said honestly. "You want to die."

She looked at me, her face crumpled, and she cried. I pulled her out of the tub, wrapped her in towel, and held her to me. "They took everything," she said. "I loved them. I shed blood for them, so much blood. I have bled, I would have died, and for what?" She looked so very lost, so broken, and hurt. "For what?"

Her racking sobs were that of someone who was dying or coming alive; someone who was breaking and becoming whole all at once. She gagged and I was sure if there was anything in her stomach it would have come up.

"I believed everything they told me. That my survival was based on obedience. It was easy to believe because everyone who took their chances without them died, and now I know why. We are…I'm a monster. I've don't things that felt wrong for the sake of others like me, so we would be safe from Breandan."

"They owned you before you were born. They robbed you in the worst possible way. They lied, they used you, and now they hunt you. It sucks but you can't control it. You can't rewrite the past because it doesn't do shit for the pain. It only makes you dumber. Your life is one thing that they want, don't let them have it, not without a real fight, not now."

I wiped her tears and kissed her head, but held her tighter. She clutched to me as if nothing in this world could tether her to its surface.

"Believe me when I tell you I know how bad it hurts," I whispered, pulling her head into my chest. My cheek rested on her head. "I know love." And it sucked silver.

She looked up at me doubtfully. "Everybody plays the fool sometimes," I smiled and rolled my eyes to ease the intimacy of the moment. "Okay, in my case it's more like always, but you get the point."

She smiled. It wasn't much, just a slight curve of her lips. Seeing such a little thing eased the ache of watching her hurt so badly but being unable to do anything about it.

"A betrayal that runs this deep makes you ask yourself what is it you have ever done to make someone you love want to hurt you so badly. How could they want to hurt you when all you ever did was love them? You wonder how you could have ever been so stupid. How could you have trusted and followed so blindly?"

She nodded. "I guess sometimes is always for me too."

I winced, and shook my head sadly. "We're screwed then," I said dryly.

She laughed and laid her head in the crook of my neck. While I had made her smile, I knew the pain wasn't gone. I just held her and the longer her scent and the heat suffused my senses, the more I needed to get away. I tried to ease her off me, but she stilled and looked up at me slowly. Sookie leaned into me. I saw her intent and I pulled away.

"We shouldn't," I said, cupping her face in my hands. It was a show of comfort, but it was also to keep her from coming closer. Already the scent of her desire was rising. It was something I hadn't sensed in so long. It was sharper and more potent, if that was possible. I didn't have much willpower. I wanted her.

I knew what sex with her meant for me, and for us. She had explained it to me. The sad part was that being bound tighter to her wasn't what made me refuse her. It was because I didn't want to take advantage of her. The weekend we met, she had been in heat and simply couldn't help herself. Now she was in pieces and wanted to feel something other than pain. I also understood that. After Freyda, I gave 'Grief Banging' a completely new meaning.

"Please, Eric," her bottom lip trembled and her eyes rimmed with tears. "Please just this once, just for a little while."

That was it. I was totally undone. With a groan of defeat and desire, I pulled her to me. Rejection from her mate was something she just couldn't handle right now. Honestly, it wasn't something I could do; whether or not it was the bonding marks, I couldn't say. I had wanted to taste her lips since the day she stormed back into my life.

For so long now, I'd been yearning to crush her body to mine. With every week that passed while we had been racing to Hawaii, I saw her glow. I saw her figure fill out even more as she grew fuller. Thankfully, she wore loose clothing most of the time. It helped tamp my hunger for her. It wasn't enough to rob me of my desire for her; nothing could.

Effortlessly, I rose with her in my arms. Her legs were around me, but she refused to part her lips from mine. Kissing her ignited a fire in me that only she could call forth. I would have her there and then, but I forced myself to make it to the bed. If it was going to be just this once, I wanted to savor it. Foreplay consisted of us simply touching each other as we got reacquainted. Her fingertips grazed over the surface of my skin, and I was purring and leaning in to seek more. I nuzzled her neck and rubbed my cheek against hers, and she moaned.

It added something more to this encounter, making it better. Admittedly, wanting to make love was something I shouldn't want, but with the mating mark wrapping me in a cloak of adoration, affection, passion, and warmth, it was all I wanted. With her smoldering blue eyes locked on mine, with her lips whispering passionate words in my ear, and with her body undulating urgently beneath mine; no, I couldn't help it.

Everything seemed as very right as I touched her, but it wasn't, it so wasn't. The end of the world was dawning, we were being hunted, but none of it mattered. It didn't matter because she was my world. Later, it would, but now I wanted to be inside her. I wanted to ease her, I wanted to hold her and never let go. Simultaneously, it wasn't what I wanted. It was the mark at work. These feelings weren't real, but I couldn't even make myself resent it while in the heat of the moment.

The scent and taste of her was intoxicating. Our fingers intertwined. Her legs cradled my hips as I lay on top of her. Our eyes held as I entered her slick folds. I saw the look in her eyes as she took my body into hers. It was a beautiful blend of devotion, wonder, and utter bliss. Slowly, I surged into her.

I was asking myself how this time could feel better than the first. Her body was tight, so very tight, just as I remembered. The only difference was that there was no blood or pain. I felt her stretch to take me as I filled her. I growled from the effort to keep from riding her harder and faster so I could get a glimpse of heaven.

Sookie moaned and reached up to pull my lips to hers as I claimed her. I found that I didn't miss that blazing need that had hung over us the first time. It burned slower and heated deeper, but it was just as consuming. When she came, it was because I made her, not because she couldn't help it. My name and her cries of desire tumbled from her lips. I was getting lost. We had to stop.

"Better?" I asked, slowing.

"Ye…yes," she moaned nodding.

"Okay," I kissed her, and began disentangling myself.

It took everything I had not to suck her lip into my mouth. I'd been ready to cum the instant I felt her wetness. It took every shred of fortitude, but I pulled out of her with my cock fully erect and aching to get back in. Ignoring the way she whimpered at the loss of me and my groan of parting with her warmth, I moved to the bathroom. It felt criminal to wash away her scent and the evidence of her pleasure, but I had to. Already, I was feeling things I shouldn't, things I didn't want, things that weren't real.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**Killer Couple**

Our journey continued, but Sookie wasn't herself. The person she thought she was, the life she thought she had lived, had all been a lie, and she was lost. I knew what was bothering her but there was nothing I could do. I began developing a theory out of sheer frustration. Vampires could form blood bonds with humans after three mutual exchanges of blood. Such a thing was entirely up to the vampire involved. With their blood, they could influence emotion, track location, and in some cases, exert full control over the human's will, though the human could sense and interpret and influence the vampire's emotions as well.

Perhaps the mating marks were similar? I found myself poking and prodding at the intuition that told me when Sookie was tired or hungry. All I could decipher were her needs, but I was getting better. I knew when to make pit stops, and, if faced with a choice, I knew what she wanted to eat. There was nothing I could do for her mood.

I couldn't exactly tell what she was feeling. I just knew it wasn't good and I couldn't comfort her. What was worse was the mark on my shoulder wasn't able to act as my guide. I tried to tell myself she needed time, however; knowing she was unhappy wasn't making me unhappy, it irritated me endlessly. It went a little something like this:

"Red light, brake; green light, go; left turn, Sookie needs something." On and on it went in an endless loop. "Have a blood, shower; change my clothes, get in the car; Sookie needs something,"

It was as if there was a fly swooping through my brain every few minutes; just when I thought it was gone, it simply came back again.

"What do you need, baby?" Sookie asked with a frown.

Deciding to test the extent of the bond, I was intentionally cryptic, "What do you think?"

"Can't figure it out…I think it's cause you don't know…" The latter half of her sentence was a guess.

She was right, I had no idea. "I want you to stop moping," I told her. "It's irritating me."

The familiar mirth danced in eyes. It wasn't to indicate she was going to smile, but she was thinking about it. "It's because the mark is making you feel you have to do something about it, but you don't know what," she replied.

I nodded. "So will you give it a rest now? You're ugly when you sulk." I teased.

She swatted my arm, but I did get a smile out of her. "No wonder you're single," she said.

"Who says I'm single?"

My voice was solemn, and I knew she was going to fall for the trick all over again. Sure enough, her featured turned to one of dismay, and she covered her face with her hands.

"Oh man…please don't tell me I'm a home wrecking hussy?" she begged. "That's the last thing I need."

I laughed and threw my arm around her. "No, the Old Bat is as close as I get to a steady girlfriend."

My response had been honest and evasive. There was no way I was going to tell Sookie the first woman I ever loved had ruined me for any other. I wasn't about to delve into the fact that said woman was a sociopathic, conniving, murderer who played me for a fool. Admittedly, Sookie and I had a similar sense of humor and some shared some character traits; but I wasn't going to get into my personal business with her. I wanted her to do me the same courtesy. We were just two people heading in the same direction. Fortunately, we were similar enough to share laughs along the way.

This time when Sookie smiled at me, it was bright and very much her own smile. "For the life of me, I can't imagine why."

I grinned, "Unbelievable, isn't it?"

Her fingers intertwined with mine where they lay draped over her shoulder and she leaned into me. For the first time since the visit from the Old Bat, she was relaxed. What she needed came to mind: a distraction. The future would come, and, when it did, we would face it no matter what it was. In this car, right now, there was nothing we could do. There were a few hours of moonlight left and thousands of miles to cover,so, I engaged her in a game of "Twenty Questions—The Unwillingly Bonded Mates Edition."

It was to distract her, but it helped me get a better read of the intuition that guided me to what she needed or preferred. Some things were easy. For instance, I knew her preference for chocolate over vanilla before I finished asking the question. Likewise, she knew I would take going to ground over a coffin. It wasn't a safety thing, it was a just a preference.

Once we reached Alpine, we decided to stay two days while I called any and every daemon I knew. None of them could do anything that wouldn't involve teleporting and Sookie couldn't, not while she was pregnant. Already I knew I would have to risk flying. Moving on my power would get us where we needed, but I would be racing the sun. It was looking like our only option. I would take off as close to shore as possible.

On our third night in Alpine, when were ready to depart, trouble came. I rose and noticed Sookie had traded her usual sweats for jeans and combat boots. There was a wide array of knives on the bed. Her weapon of choice was a bow and it was slung across her body. Somehow, it looked both beautiful and deadly. It was mercurial blue. Intricate designs were etched in silver along the handle. Both ends were in the shape of wings, sharper than any blade I'd ever seen. That bag of hers really could give provide her with anything.

"They're coming," she said, stashing daggers in her boot.

"You don't say?" I was already up and dressed. I was stashing enough weapons on my body to start a war. I supposed it was fitting.

Sookie rolled her eyes at me. She didn't look anxious as she concealed several knives on her person. If not for the mating mark, I wouldn't have known how terrified she was. She was going to fight Sin Eaters and she wasn't at full power.

"You're leaving," I told her.

We were already packed to go and we always traveled light. I didn't give her time to reply. I had her in my arms and was out the door. I wouldn't be able to fight with her this close and this scared. That was part of the reason; the other was me wanting to keep her far from harm.

"Don't stop moving until you hit Nevada. Go into the first brothel or casino you see. Ask for Felipe DeCastro. Tell him Eric sent you, and he is to personally escort you to the high court in Minnesota."

The Spaniard owed me. Ruthless as he was, being a king, I knew his word as an immortal meant more. He would get her where she needed to be. I tried to shut the door of the stolen car behind her, but she stopped me.

"I can't," she replied, sounding pained. She pulled her shirt off partly to show me her tattoo. The green roots that encircled the blue tree were pulsing. "Red is to protect us from each other. Green is so we know to protect each other from anything else. They're too close. It won't let me leave you."

I cursed violently. "Is there a reason why I'm just finding out about this now?" I hissed.

She shrugged. "It never came up," she said, righting her shirt. "Can I get a lift back to the room now?"

I didn't take us back to the room. Instead, I moved to the roof. Her backpack and mine were beside us. In the unlikely event we walked away from this fight, we could continue our journey with minimal delay.

There was no doubt that they had us beat in numbers. I pointed to the bow. "Can you use that thing?"

She huffed, "Nah, I carry it because it matches my shoes."

I supposed I'd walked right into that one. "I'll run decoy," I said, thinking of our best strategic options. "I'll watch your back."

She grinned. "That's just because you like the shape of my ass."

I laughed and made no attempt to deny it. We stood back to back, and out of morbid curiosity, I asked her a question that didn't matter.

"What is the blue for?" I wondered.

She reached for my hand and squeezed it. "It doesn't matter," she said, with a sad note in her voice. "I don't think we'll get that far."

"Blue means 'Lovers Eternal,'" a male voice called from the corner of the roof. "It only appears when the bond has been wholly formed and runs so deep not even death can undo it. It is rare."

While I appreciated that bit of information, I threw my dagger at the voice without waiting to see the face that went with it. All that registered was the sweet scent of fairy. It was all I needed to know. The only thing that saved him was Sookie. She knocked my arm aside to throw off my perfect aim. Instead of landing in the target's heart, it imbedded in a tree several yards behind him

"What is the matter with you?" she asked. "What about anything he said made you think, 'Kill me, I'm dangerous?'"

I shrugged. "Just about all of it," I replied unrepentantly.

I turned and found there wasn't just one intruder, there were two, and they were identical. Like most full-blooded fairies, these two had skin just a few shades darker than my own pale complexion and curly blonde hair. Both of them stood a head shorter than me. If their scent didn't give them away, their attire did; they were in boots, tights, and tunics. Only a fairy could make that look good in a setting so opposite to his apparel.

"Dermot, Fintan. There better be a good reason why I stopped him," she said.

Sookie's tone wasn't friendly so I kept twirling two daggers that had their names on them. They weren't wearing nametags, they were entirely identical from the length of their hair to the sound of their voices, and even their heartbeats were synchronized. I would just aim left and right then.

"We came to help," the twin to the left said.

Sookie's eyes turned to glass. "Help?" she hissed. "I know everything about what your help involves! Lying to me, making me believe I was part of your family, and making me think I was fighting to protect when I was just killing for you. That's what you call help?" she shook her head in disgust. "I don't want it, so you can go."

The twin to the right looked shamefaced. "We swore an oath in blood to be secret keepers."

Sookie waved her hand dismissively. "I'm not giving you another warning, Fintan, leave."

"You may know much, but not all." he replied.

"I'm a God Killer," she surmised. "Yes, I got that too, heaven in my right eye and hell in my left."

He nodded. "Yet you do not know that your blood is needed to claim the moon and the sun."

She let out a hysterical peel of laughter. "Fucking perfect!"

"No," the other twin said, shaking his head as if horrified. "It is bad, very bad."

I rolled my eyes. Sookie was apparently the only fairy that got the concept of sarcasm. "The moon will fully blot out the sun and the barriers between all the worlds with merge. With your blood, my father will keep the portal open to make himself Master of the Universe."

The other doomsday forecaster nodded. "You can destroy this world or you can save it," he added. "We want to help you save it."

"Why do you want to save it?" she asked, looking at the fairy on the right. She didn't want to believe them. She had no reason to trust them, but I knew she wanted to.

"You remember when you were little and you stumbled into my mind while I slept?" he replied.

Hesitantly, she nodded. "There was a little boy in your arms and you were telling him goodbye. You were crying in your sleep and in the dream."

He nodded. "That was my son. My father dealt him a death so merciless and so vile that his soul was too mangled and broken to find its way to the home of his fore bearers. To this day he roams this world and his spirit will never know peace."

There was no emotion in his face except for his eyes. They were haunted. It was a good thing that I knew fairies couldn't tell direct lies, otherwise I would have seen this as a ploy to gain trust through sympathy.

"What they did to his mother," tears filled his eyes. "What they did to her, I have not the heart to tell you. In loving her, I condemned her to die because she wasn't Fae. The fact that my son was half of me wasn't enough to spare him because his other half was human."

His brother took his hand and pulled his face into his chest. If not for the fact that they were fairies that would have been odd. Not only did they smell like all things delicious, that species couldn't keep their hands to themselves.

"We have taken from you," his twin replied. "It cannot be undone but we can save you, your mate, and your child from a similar fate. That and that alone is the only reason we have come."

Sookie looked at me. We needed the help, but I knew if I didn't agree she would turn them down. I shrugged. I would take the help, but it didn't mean I trusted them or would turn my back to them.

Sookie stiffened and I tilted my head east. "Party's here," I said, with a wicked smile. "Let's dance."

Sookie moved to join me as I leapt off the roof. I gave her a look so menacing she threw her hands up and returned to her perch. From the ledge, I saw the loose circle begin to tighten. There were nine in total. None of the faces were familiar except Preston's. Oh good! This was going to be fun! He looked up at me, and I grinned with fangs exposed in hello. He scowled and I knew he wanted to end me as much as wanted to end him. There was no talk this time. He was fast, almost too fast for me to keep up with, but not quite. I'd spent the past two hundred years fighting the worse fugitives the undead world had to offer.

He teleported and I knew he was going to appear behind me. It was a good call. I was waiting with my hand out and his neck literally appeared right in my grasp. His hands moved to break the hold, but it didn't matter. We were already taking the short way off the roof. I was kind enough to use his face to break our fall. I picked him and broke his back across my knee just because he'd made me listen to his anecdote. Then I threw his limp form at his friends. They watched as if confused.

"Don't be shy," I said, holding my arms out to the rest. "I don't bite." From the rooftop, I heard Sookie scoff and mutter something under her breath. I chuckled.

The others must have been waiting for Preston to make quick work of me. When that didn't happen, the blitz ensued. I threw two daggers with pinpoint precision. The first lodged in the side of a slim female. I threw so it cleared her ribs and punctured her lungs. It should have killed her, but it simply brought her to her knees. The other landed in the chest of the Sin Eater to her right. There was a crack of bone, again it should have been fatal, but it wasn't.

The one thing I learned in the heat of this battle was that vampires and the world in general were in deep shit. Sin Eaters were serious business. I couldn't remember ever fighting an opponent who had pushed me so close to the brink. I had suffered several deep gashes that were made with silver blades and the fight wasn't even close to being over. Dermot and Fintan finished off those I injured. I couldn't see them and neither could anyone else; I just saw the enemies I'd injured lose their heads.

"Ow," I hissed. "That hurt!"

I reached behind me and grabbed the fairy that had perched himself on my back. He had bitten me. Being a vampire, I wasn't beyond seeing the irony in that. I had him by the back of his neck, then I ran my knee into his face until I saw teeth and blood fly out of his mouth. For good measure, I crushed his sternum. I tossed him the air and by the time he bounced off the ground, there was an arrow in his chest that had him screaming in a way that my savage beating hadn't.

Preston was on his feet again and when he took in the bloodbath, he snarled and his fingers glowed. There was still a smile because I was the only one who saw the arrow that was inches from his back. The last thing he saw was my smile. Then he shuddered and dropped to the ground. He didn't scream as the others had, but it must have taken everything he had.

I moved toward the fairy to finish the kill, to put him out of his misery and mine.

"No," Sookie called. "Eric, please! Please don't!"

I really wanted to kill him. It wasn't that she didn't want him dead that angered me. It was the fact that despite his flagrant attempt to harm her and end me, she still loved him. With a frustrated growl, I kicked him into a wall. I got Sookie from the roof. She just couldn't leave without going to Preston. Again, I found my feelings divided in more directions than I cared to count.

"Remember," she said, caressing his face. "Remember what I said to you the day we went to visit my parents grave?"

He made a gurgling sound. "Hush…you're okay. You're okay."

"Not from where I'm standing," I commented smugly. That fact made me feel better.

"Try to remember Pres," she urged desperately. "If you do, you'll know this is as wrong as it feels. You'll know we were right."

She kissed his head and rose to her feet. She took me by the hand and began pulling me toward the parking lot so we could borrow another car. I knew she didn't trust me enough to leave him alone with me for a second. That was fair enough because I didn't trust myself. A minute later, we were leaving the hotel and gunning toward San Diego.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**Are We There Yet?**

"We need to get here," Sookie said to the fairies, inclining her head to the island on a map.

We had traveled as far and as fast as we could and were now in a hotel in San Diego. My mate's hands were busy scrubbing silver residue from my wounds. The Sin Eater who had bitten me had capped his teeth in silver. My body was working to dissolve the toxin. I was drinking a blood, but I was eying the fairies for dessert. Sookie knew letting me drink the fairies would ease my need and heal all my injuries. We both knew I shouldn't, so I just kept on eyeing them as she rubbed my arm to soothe me and keep me from launching at the Fae twins. I didn't see the big deal. There were two of them and I only wanted one.

They picked up the map and studied it closely. We didn't need to explain to them the obvious obstacles that were in our way. We had finally reached San Diego. That was the good news. The bad news was that I still had no idea how we were going to get from the California coast to the Hawaiian Islands. If we flew, the Sky Fae would shoot her down. If we took a boat, the Water Fae would pull my mate to watery grave.

"You are certain you will be safe here?" Dermot asked Sookie.

"Yes," I replied.

The tandem nodded. Their coordinated movements and the way they were finishing each other's thoughts and sentences was beginning to get irritating. It was like engaging someone and his or her reflection in a conversation; creepy and confusing. If I didn't see their lips move, I wouldn't know who was speaking.

"Provide the most glittery pieces of gold and silver you can, a matched set if possible," Fintan said, rising to his feet.

Sookie frowned. "How is Angus going to help?"

I didn't have to ask her to fill me in. "Angus is a goblin who loves 'Sparklies,'" she explained.

"He also knows how to travel in and out of just about anywhere without being detected."

She reached into her bag, made the request, and then offered it to Fintan. He only took two pieces of opposing designs and returned the rest.

"We'll tell him where we got it," he said, pulling his brother to his feet. "Wait for him here."

I arched a brow. "That seems unwise."

Sookie shook her head. "He's greedy and obsessive as hell. If the metal is shiny enough, he'll sell you his own mother. When they tell him where they got it, he'll take the location to the grave for fear of another person getting here before him."

"If he does not come in a week, you must assume the worst and find another way for we cannot return to you," Dermot said—or was it Fintan? I had no clue.

She nodded at him, then he faded. The other lingered, and he looked down at Sookie. "I have always loved you, and I have always kept you as my family, more so than the one into which I was born." Then he too vanished.

I sighed. "I still think you should have let me eat one," I complained.

She laughed and kissed my head. Then she reclined onto the bed and cradled my head in her lap. We didn't speak. Our silence was comfortable, companionable. She ran her fingers through my hair and I played with her fingers. Nothing had brought me this much peace or scared me so much.

The next night I rose and for the first time, Sookie didn't have a warm blood waiting for me. "I can't anymore," she said, remorsefully. "Using the bag is taking too much out of me and stressing him."

The last thing I heard her ask for before the weapons and coins was fifty thousand in cash. That and the weapons was all my backpack held. Sookie carried the maps and her toiletries. We bought what we needed and ditched it once we got somewhere else. It had been more important to travel light and fast than anything else.

If not for the habit she had gotten me into, I would have taken a second to realize I wasn't even in need of a drink. I just wanted it because she made it for me. Still, I should have known that it had been wearing on her. More things did with each passing day. The topic of her child wasn't something we discussed unless it involved her health. I wanted to ask if she was well but I didn't have to; I felt it, and I was more than grateful for our bond.

"I wish I could feed you," she murmured.

"I know," I said, taking her hand and heading for the door.

The thing was, I didn't want her to offer me her vein. It would kill any shred of self-control I had left. Being with her day in and day out with our constant exchange of affectionate touches, and having her soft body over mine as she slept was already too much. At this point, I didn't look past her neck. Sexually, I was frustrated. Emotionally, I was confused and overwhelmed. Mentally, I was tired, and all I wanted was space to deal with it. That was the one thing I couldn't get.

We bought enough clothes and food for Sookie to last us a few days. Unlike the jeans and plain tees Sookie was fond of, she bought sweat pants and shirts. It wasn't really evident that she was with child. The only reason I noticed was because I gave her a perverse amount of attention. I'd never paid any attention to pregnant women, but I noticed, despite my diligent efforts, the way her body was filling out. I noticed the minor growth of her breasts and the swell of her stomach. It made no sense to me that she was more attractive to me now than she was when I met her.

The continuous traveling had been wearing on her. She'd been sleeping less and was on edge more. With the few days off, she caught up on some sleep and got she got her strength back . The losses the Sin Eaters had suffered would undoubtedly result in them taking a few days to regroup.

This was a good a time as any to take a break, so we took the reprieve while we waited for the goblin, Angus. Yet, with every day that he didn't show, I knew I would risk the sun to get us where we had to be. The longer we stayed, the higher the risk of Sin Eaters finding us. The warrant for me had gone out. It was only a matter of time before Enforcers found my trail.

The interactions between Sookie and me had were reverberative of a normal couple. I would go out with her while she had dinner at one of the many restaurants. She would linger in the bars as I looked for someone from whom to feed. Then we walked. It was mostly to scout the area, but we walked hand-in-hand and it felt nothing like reconnaissance. Despite all that was against us, those little walks and the way she needed to sleep in my arms seemed more important. I resented every bit of joy I found in all of it because I knew it wasn't real.

It was our fourth day in San Diego when the Enforcers came. What was odd was Sookie caught their approach before I did. As we walked through the crowded mall hand-in-hand, her head tilted left. I casually scanned the area and nothing alerted my senses.

"Do you hear that?" she asked.

I shook my head. "What?"

"Vampires," she said, pulling us into the next store. "I hear them."

She pretended to peruse through the toy store. "Want to tell me how?" I wondered. While we talked, I was trying to filter through all the scents and sounds, and pinpoint where they were.

"I'm a telepath," she said, as if she was telling me her shirt was blue.

I stopped and stared at her. "So you've been—" I began.

She shook her head. "You're dead. I don't get reception from you, just static. I don't hear a lot of other supes either; the frequencies are too different, I think."

"Anything else you want to tell me?" I asked, annoyed. "Now is the time to disclose." I was sick of finding things out a few seconds before shit hit the fan.

She cut me a derisive eye roll. "Once I dyed my hair green. In the winter I wear toe socks. Anytime I walk by a carnival, I go in and ask for a job for a few days. That way I get all the fried dough and cotton candy I want." After a brief moment, she added. "I don't like raccoons. They have people hands and look like bandits. I don't trust em'."

I opened my mouth and found that for the first time ever, I was speechless; utterly stumped. "I'm starting to think you're crazy," I commented. I wasn't sure if I was being serious or not.

She laughed and it made me smile. "You're just getting that, huh?"

"How many of them are there?" I asked, moving her to the cash register to pay for whatever was in my hand.

"Six," she said.

I frowned. "That can't be all." I'm an S7 vampire. I truly hoped that wasn't all there were. That would just be insulting.

She shrugged. "That's all I count in my range."

"Keep shopping." I told her. "I'll be right back."

Sookie took hold of my hand. I stared down at her and saw as she let the bond tell her how little danger I was in. I kissed her head. Through the employee only area, I was able to find a back way out of the store. I followed the corridors and found my way toward the loading docks. This was a nice quiet place to beat the shit out of Enforcers. There were three two man teams of S3 and a team of S4. I wasn't even going to enjoy it.

It turned out there were eight. I saw the first of them slide out through a small grate. He was obviously a decoy. It didn't matter; he wouldn't move fast enough. Before anyone got a word out, I attacked. As I had promised the Old Bat, I didn't end any of them or take any of their limbs. I put my hand through a few of them. It was positively sad that clean up took longer than the fight. It couldn't be helped. I would get in more trouble for causing a spectacle than the actual fight. After I was done, I threw them in the dumpsters nearby. It would conceal their presence as they healed, or protect them from the sun if they didn't.

Sookie was exactly where I left her. We went back to the hotel and when we arrived, she began packing.

"We can stay," I told her. "This is the last place they'll think to look for me."

"I don't care," she said. "I want to get far away."

"We need to give your Goblin friend a few more days."

She stopped and stared at the ceiling in frustration. The urge to go to her didn't fully register before I was acting on it. I carried her to bed with me and held her as she tried to control her fear. This was the first night she didn't sleep on top of me. It would put too much pressure on her stomach so instead, she curled into a ball, and I lay beside her. It took longer, but she finally began to relax.

**~ooooo~**

By day seven Angus didn't show. That made the choice for us. We left our clothes behind and I even ditched some weapons. I needed to move as fast as possible because I would be racing the sun. We were set to go when a knock came to the door. All I could smell was something really unpleasant.

"You bastard," Sookie said with a scowl.

The unexpected visitor let out a delighted cackle and then he walked through the door. Presumably, this was Angus and he had a face only a mother could love. His fingers were longer than normal and covered with green fur. He was bald and his nose was more of a snout. His eyes were five sizes too big for his face and shone a bright yellow. That was before you looked at his ears. He could use them to air glide.

"Och! I'woolda wagered h'is lot ur yer woolda knocked yer pan in by noo!" His was a Scottish burr, and it was thick. He had a bright smile, but his tone was disappointed. "'En Ah coods 'ae me Sparklies."

In case we didn't get the point, he emphasized it by forming a finger pyramid of evil contemplation. Instinctively I moved to stand in front of Sookie, but she sidestepped me. Cleary she wasn't worried about him. I wouldn't trust this tiny troll to lead me to the lobby, never mind across a damn ocean.

"Do you want to kill him or should I?" I asked Sookie, in all seriousness. She had dibs seeing they were familiar.

"No," she said, picking up her bag. "I'll do him one worse," then she turned to the goblin with a look of disgust. "I bet you have two pieces that I bartered to the fairy. I have their matches and eight other pairs too. Five of them have gold heads and silver tails."

A dreamy, almost orgasmic, look fell over his face, making him look more like an inebriated gremlin, if you can imagine such a thing. "Let's 'ae a swatch 'en," he purred.

"No," she snapped, angrily.

"Naw, lassie 'ae a heart. we be best chums, ye an' me aien't we? Lit ol' Angus hae a wee peek."

"No," she said. By the look on his face, she had indeed dealt him a fate worse than death. He blew a gasket, literally. Steam shot out of his ears, some bits of his fur singed. It didn't make him smell any better.

"Pure techt, pure techt gantin, ool' Battleaxe!" he shouted. His eyes had turned orange. He was jumping up and down like a child having a fit. "Gie it haur! gie it! Angus sparklies! Gimme!"

"No," she snapped, "Just for that, I'm going to melt them into the ocean while you watch!"

She walked out the door and I followed, with Angus still throwing insults. When the door closed, he let out a piercing wail and began cursing in what I thought was Old Scots. I thought she was bluffing but she continued walking towards the elevators. Wordlessly I followed. I trusted her to make the right call, especially since she had experience in dealing with this particular creature and I didn't.

Angus was waiting on the sidewalk. He looked composed and calm, but there was still a manic look to him. He cleared his throat in a deceptively dignified manner. "Ah micht haeoverreacted a tad," he said, bowing his head so low his ears touched the ground. "Mah sincerest apologies tae th' braw lass an' 'er handsome bloke**.**"

Sookie squeezed my hand and we kept walking. We pretended not to see him just like all the humans around us that could not. When the apology didn't work, he had another full-blown tantrum complete with name calling. Neither of our mothers had been spared and according to him, they had a preference for fornicating with barnyard animals. It wasn't infuriating, it was funny! I knew they existed, but this was the first goblin I'd ever met, and he was crazy as all hell.

"You know some really fucked up people," I commented to my mate.

"Baby, you don't know the half," she mused.

We were at the boardwalk, and Sookie reached into my backpack to retrieve one of the coins. Angus was still with us and the instant he caught the shine, his rant died mid-insult.

"How far do you think you can launch this?" she asked me, twirling the coin between her fingers. Angus was watching as if he was hypnotized.

"I might be able to give a shark a black eye," I replied, tossing and catching the piece of gold.

"Sparklies…" Angus murmured, inching forward. "So…very bonnie, so… shiny."

"I can't walk or drive, but I need to travel across water without a boat, plane, or teleporting," she said, waving a coin in his face. "Any ideas on how I can manage that?"

He nodded, held his hand out, and she dropped the gold in his hand. I was really going to have to ask her about him later. This creature almost made Gollum look normal. He took the precious metal, rubbed it all over his face, and down his body. He let out a low purr of glee.

"Fossegrimen Lane," he said, holding out his hand again. "Fussy fella, he is an' reit mingin' temper tay, but if ye play em a braw tune he'll lit ye pass." She paid him again.

"Play what?" she asked.

"Fiddle," he moaned, molesting himself with the new coin he had been given. "Ur anythin' wi' a strings but he fancies th' fiddle."

Sookie looked at me as if that was it, as if I should know how to play the instrument. I was offended. "What makes you think I know how to play a fucking fiddle?"

"You said you were 1,000 years old. I'm assuming at some point you got bored enough to play all kinds of instruments."

"That is not only presumptuous," I fired back. "It's offensive."

She had the nerve to look momentarily shocked. When I scowled at her, she threw her hands up in surrender. You're right," she said, taking my hand. "I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to assume things about you."

I harrumphed, though I found that she was already forgiven. "It was," I said, "Plus, I play violin and guitar. Fiddles and harps are for minstrels." I concluded in a distinguished fashion.

Sookie shot me a glower so deep I thought it would be etched on her face forever. All I did was grin. That's what she got for assuming and not asking.

"Angus, my friend," Sookie said reclaiming the Goblin's attention. She scratched him behind his ear. He preened, purred, and his eyes rolled into his head. "I need a guitar," she said. Using her free hand, she rubbed a gold coin across his cheek as she scratched him. Between the coins and the scratch, the little shit was having the best night of his life. "Let me borrow one that never misses a note and all my 'Sparklies' are yours."

"Nae tak' backs?" he asked. "Nae favors?"

She shook her head and held her hand out. "No take backs, no favors; all you have to do is take us to the road of Fossegrimen Lane and provide the guitar."

"Lyre of Orpheus the Muse," he said, leaning his head into her fingers. Unlike his initial presence, the fact that she was touching him made me want to kill him all the more. "Nofin' else, guitar, tis nae but paupers harp."

We had to spend one more night in San Diego. There were no hotels nearby so I invaded the beach home of an older couple. Sookie was conflicted about me using my glamour in that manner. The only other option was to risk her safety and mine, so choice was simple. I rested in the safety of the ward that guarded human homes from the undead. I didn't have to worry about Sin Eaters, either, though I knew they were on our trail again. They'd had more than enough time to recoup. In the event they did come during our last night, they had to be stealthy. The area was much too public. It improved our odds, or so we hoped.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: For all you American's out there Happy Independence Day. If you're British...well...just enjoy the story anayway. LOL...If you're not amused please don't be offended. I'm not often as funny as I think I am. :D**

* * *

**Chapter 16 **

**Finish Line**

When night came, Angus arrived and he had a lyre in hand. Sookie tried to take it from him, but he hissed and clutched it to his chest. This was getting old. He had proven to be unstable, unreliable, disloyal, and a complete prick. I had no idea why we hadn't killed him yet. I was ready to beat the shit out of him until he gave us what we needed.

"No," Sookie said, pulling my arm. "He isn't dangerous unless you steal from him."

I raised my hands and stepped back. Nothing could be done the easy way it seemed. Sookie gave Angus three more gold coins. We followed him past the main traffic area of the beach, under the docks, and into a ravine that somehow connected the ocean, the sand, and the world above.

"Haur ye ur," the Goblin said, holding out his hand. "Pay me."

Sookie gave him the finger. "I'm not about to buy a knock off, you double-crossing little shit." She hissed. "Let him test the lyre or you can eat cubic zirconium for dinner, and have me kick your ass for breakfast."

Angus let out peeling, cackling laughter. He didn't seem annoyed that his ruse hadn't been easily believed. It was more as if he was pleased with himself for trying it. The golden lyre that he had kept so close to his chest vanished, a worn wooden one took its place, and he offered it to me.

This was an instrument with which I had no experience. It didn't matter. Despite my lack of knowledge, it sang to my touch. In my mind were the chords of a guitar, but as I plucked at the strings of the lyre, it came out as something smoother, softer.

Sookie didn't pay Angus until he made the gateway appear. He dragged his furry green fingers across thin air. It was clear when he reached something solid. He took a hand full of sand and blew it into the night and then she saw a door. He knocked and it opened to reveal a gateway that had risen from the ocean floor. It was almost intangible. It was like glass in the fog, like ice in the rain. The only thing that set it apart was the way the path stood uninfluenced by the rolling tides. I didn't have to tell Sookie that moonlight was burning. We quickly ascended the platform. The last thing we saw was Angus on the ground, dumping all the coins over himself and rolling in them. That just wasn't worth commenting on.

We walked on, and I felt the sights and sounds of the world diminishing one footstep at a time. Looking down, I saw the ocean. Above us was the starry night sky. We were in the middle. Regardless of its frail, evanescent appearance, the walkway was sturdy. As we traveled, the path was fading behind us. We walked on knowing there was no going back. I'd been moving at full speed to battle the coming sunrise. The longer I walked down the path, the more my senses and superhuman abilities dimmed. I'd been slowing considerably and was now moving at little more than human speed. I couldn't even see as far as I normally could.

It was just me, walking the deserted and magical path. Sookie was in my arms and she had been there for at least an hour, fast asleep. I couldn't gauge how far we had traveled or how much longer we had to go. I knew we were close when the translucent terrain began forming bleeding out and resembling a dirt road. I could have been walking the English countryside several centuries ago. Shrubs began sprouting, there were moss covered rocks, and willow trees began to line the path.

"Never has a child of the night crossed my bridge," a voice called. It sounded as though it was reverberating through every leaf and stone around me. This had to be none other than Fossegrimen. "I wonder if you will bring joy to my ears or if I will eat you up."

Fucking Angus! He hadn't said what would happen if we had failed to play a ballad and we had been too desperate to ask.

"Is there anything in particular you wish to hear?" I asked calmly.

In response, a spectral figure appeared before me. He wasn't a ghost. While his form was clear, frail but it was also appeared solid, much like the ground had been.

"You are beautiful," he said, bringing his face close to mine. I knew it was meant to make me squirm, but I didn't flinch. "It pleases me and so you may play what you wish."

I would be fool to see it as a pass, more as if he was setting me up to fail. Not only would I have to play exceptionally well, I had to choose a song that he liked. Having no information on him, I had no idea how to go about that. It didn't matter, the instrument I had couldn't fail. It instilled me with all the confidence I needed.

Sookie was still asleep, and I did my best not to jolt her as I settled down to the floor. Her head was tucked in the crook of my neck and her sleeping form was sprawled across my lap. As gently as I could I eased Sookie off me. Ever so slightly, she whimpered from the loss of contact. I murmured to her and rubbed the mark on her back. Her tense posture eased at my touch, but I thought she was much too tired to wake in her usual fashion.

I watched Sookie as she settled. I looked ahead to where the ethereal figure was seated awaiting his ballad. Then I blotted out everything else but the strum of the strings and me. There was no audience. I closed my eyes and played. I played _The Sound Of Silence_. It wasn't a particular favorite or anything, but it had been popular during its time and was easy to recall. I opened my eyes and found Fossegrimen with his legs crossed and gaping at me. There was a far off contemplative expression on his face. It was like someone tasting something new to see how it appealed to his or her palate. I knew if he didn't like it, the next thing he would taste was me.

"That rendition was enchanting; sad, sweet, and hopeful. It so clearly illustrates that to live is to suffer," he said, "but the instrument is not yours, and so the talent is not your own. I know 'The Lyre of Orpheus' when I hear it."

I didn't let it show, but in my head I was thinking, fuck me.

"However," he said, moving closer. "You are so very beautiful." He reached his hand out to caress my face. It was like having a cool breeze settle on that side of my face. "Make me feel what you feel when she is with you," he said, glancing down at the sleeping woman next to me. "I want to feel it."

He was a fucking ghost, and I had no idea how I was supposed to make him feel otherwise. Already I knew I would have to do it. I repressed a sigh.

"How do I do that?" I asked.

"Kiss me," he said, coming to kneel in front of me. "Kiss me, make it true, and I will let you pass."

I kept Sookie where she was and if she minded this, then she could come up with a better solution. Experimentally, I raised my hand to his face to see if he was solid and he was. The texture was smooth like marble and soft as a cloud. He leaned into my touch. I've seen many things, but it seemed that since I met this woman, my list of impossible was shrinking at an alarming rate.

There were many things I'd done during my long existence. Locking lips with a ghostlike being with my lover lying beside us was definitely a new one. Then again, how much more bizarre was it than being mated, branded and meeting a Goblin that was like 'Oscar The Grouch' with a crack addiction.

I'd had male lovers, but that had been by choice. This was nothing like that. I found that it didn't matter. There was nothing on my mind but saving my mate. The way to it came to mind was because it was what she needed. The face and the foreign feel vanished. I was just seeing Sookie. I no longer had to repress the urge to taste her lips had this been her. I leaned in and I brushed my lips against his as he stood utterly still. He was clearly waiting to feel something that was probably not going to happen, at least not without his cooperation.

I pulled away and tucked a strand of light hair behind his ear. "When I kiss her, she kisses me," I said. "That's what makes me feel like I do, knowing she wants me like I want her."

He seemed to have to consider my words. Then he nodded. "I will do as you do."

I nodded. "That should work."

I tried again and this time he moved with me. He moaned and the deeper our kiss became, the more solid he became. Like the road, his translucent appearance fell away. Jet-black hair, one green eye, and one brown eye looked back at me. His build was slim and his skin was tawny. He was in white drawstring pants, his chest and feet were bare. I pulled away slowly.

He was smiling and looking himself over. "I enjoyed that," he said. Then he looked over my head in the direction in which I'd just come. "If you will oblige me again, I will deny entry to those that are on my bridge in pursuit of you now."

The next time I saw that little shit, I was going to rip his ears off. If someone had managed to trace our steps to this precise location, it was because Angus had sold us out for the shiniest piece of gold or silver he had been offered. I knew I should have killed him. I looked down at Sookie and the peaceful sleep she was enjoying. Nothing would grieve me more than to wake her. Therefore, I kissed him again. He just better not be expecting me to call him in the morning.

Satisfied, Fossegrimen lifted Sookie off the ground with a flourish of his hand and mine were open to receive her. She didn't stir and I was grateful. Then he waved me past that was when I saw the Sin Eaters walking up the bridge. There were twelve of them. Preston wasn't in the lineup. It made me wonder if Sookie had reached him or if he was still recovering. The only one I did recognize was the burly one whose teeth I'd rearranged. By the look on his face, he recognized me. I smiled. He had come so close, but was yet so far.

"Handsome child of the night, go left," Fossegrimen said, waving at me. He pointed at the Sin Eaters, "Go right."

"We have a ballad for serenading you," one of the fairies said, "Any of your choosing."

"Go right," Fossegrimen repeated, "Or go back."

The threat was obvious because there was no back. I didn't take the time to see how it ended. I took the turn hastily, and by my third footfall, I was in the one place I wanted to be. By the placement of the moon, only an hour had passed since first dark in California. In fact, I'd gained more hours in the night, not lost them. Ten more minutes and I would have us in a whole other world. I was grateful Sookie was asleep. She didn't see me make out with a ghost. She didn't see the danger that had come so close. Mostly I was glad she had stayed asleep because I knew she needed it.

Kahoolawe was the smallest of the eight islands of Hawaii. The deserted island was more of a reserve. Officially, the population was zero because there was no fresh water. It was where Americ was located. Americ was named for its two main inhabitants, my maker, Godric and his witchy wife, Amelia.

The most basic skill any witch possessed was to ward homes from danger. Amelia had taken it to a completely new level. She had her home so well protected that over time it became a world within this world. It was undetectable to all the senses, physical or spiritual. It wasn't just their haven, it was their paradise. There was no danger or intrusion from the outside world. If Sookie was safe no other place in the world, she would be safe here.

If anyone were watching my movements, it would appear as though I was dancing through the cratered path that circled an inactive volcano. In reality, the steps were the only ways to have a doorbell appear. Even if she had been able to handle the five-mile hike, Sookie wouldn't have been able to walk the path. It was engineered to be clear to four people and she wasn't one of them. If she tried, she would be walking around in circles until she gave up or until she died from fatigue.

When I stepped on the last rock, the platform rose. I bit my finger and traced the symbol that was etched into the marble. Suddenly the air shimmered and a door appeared. The air wasn't acerbic. The darkness of the land wasn't dense. It was the middle of the day but my skin didn't burn. It was a stark contradiction. Behind me, there was nothing but barren wasteland. Yet, directly in front of me lay a completely new world that was bursting with color.

This was how Americ always looked. The sights and sounds of spring were in the air. Hawaiian Flora's of every color were in a full bloom. A light breeze blew the pleasant mix of flowers in my face. It was always spring here, the flowers were always in bloom, and sun wasn't lethal to her vampire. I could hear the river in the distance rushing over the falls. There was nothing but rolling hills, green grass, and meadows that were overflowing with trees bearing fruit and songbirds perched up high.

I saw the double doors of the white castle open. I didn't have to, but I never saw as Godric moved from that door and stood before me. Looking at him from the human viewpoint, there was no way he would pass for two thousand years old. He had been younger than I had when he had been turned. Once I'd asked him but he didn't know exactly. Eighteen was his guess. He looked younger with his close cut dark hair, boyish looks, and slight frame. He smiled at me and looked at the sleeping woman in my arms. He shook his head.

"There better be a good reason for this," he said, shaking his head. "Otherwise Lia might turn you into something quite foul."

"I'm thinking newt or toad," his wife said, from a distance. Even from the distance, I could see her peeved expression and hear the fury in her tone. "Bringing a stranger here, have you lost your mind?"

"If you wake her up with your harping, I'll torch your broomstick," I replied.

Did she really have a broomstick? I thought so, though I've never seen it. I only assumed because it pissed her off. Both of them knew that I would never bring someone here if I didn't trust them. They couldn't help but worry because my record of accomplishment wasn't great.

The last woman I found love with had massacred half a village, and I took the blame just so she could leave me. I understood their worry. This was different. This was a place not even my ex-wife knew of. If not for the mating marks, I never would have brought Sookie here.

It was confusing. I was caught between extreme drowsiness and feeling refreshed. I fought it. There was nothing wrong with me. It was a great idea on Amelia's part. Godric got to enjoy what it was like to walk under the sun, no matter how fake it was. Like Amelia, he would sleep when the moon rose, although it was really backward. Here in Americ, day was night and night was day. Therefore, while the sun was setting here, it was rising in the real world. The effects weren't as strong, but the lethargy was there. It was just too soon for my body to adjust.

While my mate rested, I told my maker and his wife the very long and confusing tale of how I came to be here. When I was finished speaking my audience was wearing the same dumbfounded expression.

"So…let me get this straight," Amelia said. "The Fae have been orchestrating a plan to take over the universe and they created these not really human but not really Fae hybrids called Sin Eaters. And you unknowingly mated with one, who us like Queen Sin Eater?"

"God Killer," I corrected sipping a blood. "The Pythoness says, she has hell in one eye and heaven in the other. The fairies we ran into confirmed it but they explained that Niall needs her blood to force the gateways open on the next solar eclipse."

Godric walked behind me and moved my shirt to the side as to get a better look at the mating mark. He poked it and sniffed at it. "She did this to you but it does not cause you pain, it ties her life to yours?"

I shook my head. "The marks are involuntary. They appear on powerful Sin Eaters to insure that only they can breed amongst each other."

He frowned in confusion. "She chose you because…?"

She chose me to scratch an itch and I obliged her gladly but she would have never looked back if not for the marks and I thought I would have. I felt like my presence was forced on her and she didn't really want it. Then again, I too felt forced. I shrugged my instant annoyance away because I had no idea why I was irritated.

"She said, she didn't want to mate, she didn't want a child."

They both blinked at as if I just grew a second head. "You knocked up a God Killer?" Amelia with a shake of her head.

I didn't have the energy to remind her that I've been dead for centuries. They should know that the child obviously isn't mine.

"Your life is tied to hers?" Godric asked. That was all he cared about but he need not worry.

"No," I said rubbing my shoulder. "The marks let us know how to care and provide for one another."

I still believed it had some sway over my emotion but I didn't voice that point of contention to Godric.

"The red portion harms us for harming each other. The green one will glow in the presence of danger and will not allow us to part while the threat persists. Blue is 'Lovers' Eternal'."

That was why we couldn't have sex, for fear of triggering that aspect of the mark.

"It hasn't shown its self." I concluded, and I hoped like hell it never would.

Amelia prepared something for Sookie to eat but I insisted on bringing it up to her. The last thing I needed was for her to attack Amelia, no matter how much she deserved it.

As I was entering the room, I saw Sookie begin to whimper in her sleep, I saw her body tense. I wasn't close to her, and by the time I could get there she had already sprung awake, like coils that were wound too tightly. More and more, I found myself wanting to ask her why. I wanted to know what haunted her so much. I shook the thought aside. It didn't matter. We would go our separate ways soon enough.

"Dinner," I said, when I saw the cold look in her eyes fade. "Amelia cooked so I'm sure it tastes as bad as it smells."

Sookie tilted her head to the side. At the same time, I heard Amelia make a noise of irritation. "Stay out of my head," she barked.

Sookie turned red and she looked contrite. "Sorry," she yelled back. "Force of habit."

"It's okay," she yelled back.

You would have thought they were the best of friends. Amelia let the invasion go and that was it. The first time we met, I confused her for a teenage boy. She thought me to be a particularly large Amazonian. Over a century later and we were still calling each other names.

Amelia was somewhat human, but she was immortal, though not vampire or a deity. From what Godric had told me she sustained her life by taking the time others had left. She was selective in those she stole from. Her targets weren't those who were simply unfortunate or young. She took the life force of people that the world could do without.

Sookie gave me a questioning look. It was then that I realized that though I had told her where we were going, I never told her with whom we would be staying. She had easily trusted me with her safety and asked no questions. I simply hadn't wanted to talk about anything deeper than what we faced.

"That is Amelia," I explained. "She is the wife of my maker, Godric. You will meet them later."

Sookie's stomach rumbled and I had the tray on her lap before she could reach for it. The more time I spent around her, the less control I had over shows of affection or acts of thoughtfulness. It was odd that our movements seemed coordinated. It went beyond wanting to make sure she was within arm's reach so I could feel that she was safe. It was a stronger pull that tied blood bound couples. It was beyond electric. There was a constant back and forth like satellites, relaying information. We revolved around each other.

When Sookie moved beyond my radar, I moved to compensate without thinking about it. It was so strong that I took notice even when I wasn't in the same room. It wasn't an overwhelming compulsion or strong emotional upheavals as with blood bonds. That unwanted peculiarity was another thing to add to the list of growing pains. I pushed it away.

I had done what I finally set out to do. Sookie would be safe for the duration of her pregnancy. When her child was born, we would go our separate ways. How that would affect the fate of the world, I did not know. Truth be told, I didn't want to think of it. I could disengage from her now, the recent past, and the dark future. While we were here, I could take the space I so desperately needed.

Sookie ate and looked around the room curiously. The home looked like a medieval castle from the outside, but the inside was more like southern plantation home. I had a room here and so did Pam, but I abandoned it for something bigger. It was closer to the main house than I liked, but I couldn't stand having Sookie sleep away from me. If I could help it I would.

"Are you alright now?" I asked her, after she had inhaled her meal.

She nodded with a bright smile that was so her. I went to her and kissed her nose. "I need to sleep," I told her.

She frowned and looked outside. "When night falls here, it's dawn in the real world. When the sun rises here, it's dark out, and so we get to enjoy a semblance of the sun."

"Where is here?" she asked. "Where are we?"

"Americ," I told her, caressing her face. "Nothing and no one from the outside world can touch you here. You are safe now."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**Want You Back**

My mate didn't really know what it was like to not have to watch her back because, despite my words, she still kept a watchful eye. All she saw were birds and bees and the little forest animals that were a part of Americ's scenic illusion. In the month that followed, Sookie slowly began to ease her guard and I glimpsed a whole different personality. There was an easiness and grace to her. Though she could spare the energy, she had long hung up her magic bag.

More often than not, her feet were bare and her hair was down. Sookie liked the simple things; I could tell because she did chores. I would have objected but it made her perversely happy. She would smile and hum to herself as she swept the already clean hallways and polished just about everything until she could catch her reflection in it. When she wasn't doing that, she was basking in the sun.

I'd never imagined what Sookie would look like in the light of the day if it was possible she was even more beautiful. There was no caution to the way she moved or what she said. It was mostly due to Amelia, who was welcoming and took an instant liking to her. They did what women did; talked, laughed, made fun of men. A few times they cried over movies and into their chocolate ice cream.

All of this I noticed from a distance. After the forced proximity and sudden devotion to a woman I didn't know, I took a step back. Outside of making sure she had everything she needed, I stayed away from Sookie. We didn't talk except for what was necessary, and we weren't playful, just cordial. It was for the best, as she said, this was temporary. Yet, she still called me baby, and I called her lover. It made everything all the more confusing.

This felt awkward. I'd never expected interacting with her while we were on the road to be easier than it was now. Sookie seemed to be fitting in better with Godric and Amelia than I was. Sure; I antagonized Amelia, but that was the way we communicated. I interacted with my maker and we caught up. I held back from my mate especially because I had no excuse to get closer. But with every day that passed, I found myself wanting to do so anyway. Sookie didn't need anything and danger was nowhere around. It was only then that I noticed that the upheaval and volatile nature of the marks wasn't normal. Most likely, it had been induced by stress. Since we arrived, it had calmed. I was beginning to notice it less and less. It was to the point that unless I caught the reflection, I forgot it was there.

Sookie smiled, laughed, and made jokes, but it wasn't with me. I only enjoyed it by proxy. I missed the way we could go tit for tat. I missed the way I could look at her and she would smile knowing exactly all the things I wanted to say even though I couldn't. That was new and more frustrating than anything else was. I…missed her.

Before I knew it, Sookie was five months pregnant. With every day that passed, she glowed even more. Amelia was practiced in caring for pregnant women and she helped her, answered all her questions, and assuaged her concerns. They had both assumed the child would come soon, but there seemed to be no sign of him. I couldn't fight the knee jerk reaction to worry, but the fact that Amelia was experienced gave me more license to step away because someone was attentively seeing to her. It didn't keep me from watching.

The objective had been met. The circumstances no longer forced us to be as close. That was what I told myself. It was what I wanted to be true; but it wasn't. With all the distance I'd placed between us, I still had no idea. I couldn't be sure if it was the bonding marks or just the man in me who was attracted to the most mesmerizing woman he had ever known.

I looked forward to sundown because Sookie still needed to hear my voice and feel my arms around her. When she slept, I didn't have to pretend to not want her. The other intimate touchs I anticipated was the way she liked to sit when I happened to catch her watching television and my will was weak.

Sookie liked to sit on the floor, tuck herself between my long legs and close them around her until they encompassed her. Then she'd rest her head on my left knee and her right hand wound around my right leg. There were times when she fell asleep in that position, despite her swelling girth.

Everything this woman did, said, or didn't say, confused me. I might need to face the fact that I would never understand her or what I felt for her. There was no more denying that there was _something_ there. No matter how deeply I tried to bury it, it refused to wane. There would never be a neat little box for me to place her in and that was I was afraid of.

When it came to Sookie, I had given up eternity. No thought or deliberation had gone into it. I didn't have to weigh the pros and the cons. It had been instinctive and instantaneous. That was the problem. I didn't know if I would have gone to such extremes without being mated. I couldn't tell if I would feel this strongly, or want her so badly, without the mating symbols.

The marks were causing me to doubt any and everything that attracted me to her. I couldn't trust my emotions. They had led me so far astray once. I couldn't trust my instincts because of the compulsion I felt for her. I had been angry at the consequences of what should have been a weekend fling.

The appearance of the tattoos only made me angrier; so did the sudden devotion and emotional bond. That was before we added everything else. The fact that she had lied about carrying my child to gain to my protection was a major issue. That was unsettling. Then there was the little detail of us being arch nemeses and an impending war that might end the world.

It was all too much to process, so I shut it out. I continued to shut her out. Regardless of that, I watched her. I was becoming more and more concerned for her. The further her pregnancy progressed, the weaker Sookie became. She needed to sleep and eat more. She needed more of me…she needed more everything. It irritated me that I had to provide it.

It wasn't so much I had to do it that irritated me, it was the fact that doing so made me deliriously happy. When I knew my mate was well fed and well rested it made me want to smile. Yet, she would insist the marks weren't meant to control. Bullshit! Me feeding and going to sleep didn't make her happy, yet she always had a smile for me when I rose. Perplexing.

How the hell was it possible she was doing nothing and she was still as tempting as all hell? I had no idea, but it didn't keep me from watching. In fact, it made it worse. The weather was always perfect for humans in Americ. It meant that Sookie wore less. It was torture! Her ripening belly stuck out between her hips in a neat little bump. Being pregnant did incredible things to her ass.

I watched, no matter I told myself I shouldn't.

My sexual frustration was growing and so was the ache I felt for her. I noticed they were two very different things. I was starting to feel more and more like a stalker; her stalker. Today after she had eaten, she embarked on her favorite thing. There was a clearing that was surrounded by bright flowers of every species. In the middle was a large sandalwood tree with a swing attached to it. Every time she mounted the swing, I cringed. It had nothing to do with her need, or danger; I just worried.

She had a blanket in her hand and her face was buried in a book. By the cover I knew it was a romance novel, which Amelia had in abundance. The enthusiasm with which she devoured it made me smile. Every now and again, when her child kicked her too forcefully or became too rambunctious for her to find peace, she would rub her belly and scold him, but there was an adoring smile on her face as she did so. Soon she abandoned the swing and sprawled out under the sun. She rubbed her belly and I saw her lips move, but I had no idea what she was saying.

When I looked at my mate from this distance, all I saw was a woman. A heavily pregnant one who smiled, wore dresses, baked, laughed, played board games, danced, and to all our dismay, she even sang. I would have never been able to guess her dark past or the uncertainty of her future. After a while, Sookie fell asleep. When the wind blew, I wondered if she enjoyed it or if she was cold. Half of me wanted to race to her. The other half forced me to stay where I was. Both urges irritated me. Not knowing what to do, I sighed and continued to watch her. I was turning into such a fucking stalker.

"I am unsure if I should be alarmed or amused," Godric said, sidling up beside me. "Your behavior is certainly a little of both."

"She is tired," I murmured to him, not pulling my eyes from her. "Being with child seems to take more out of her than she has to give."

"Have you tried to give her blood?" he asked, moving beside me.

"No," I replied.

The thought hadn't crossed my mind. That told me that it was something she didn't need. Having a safe place for the duration of her pregnancy and to give birth was all she cared about. Sookie gave me as much space as I gave her. She didn't want me anymore than I showed I wanted her. She probably still felt just as trapped as I did, at least as I once did; cared as unwillingly as I used to. I doubted that having my blood in her was something she wanted.

"She told Amelia she will go soon after she gives birth," he said softly. "When Lia offered her permanent residence, she refused. She says that you do not want her here, or anywhere around you. She says that you only tolerate her so she will break the bond between you. Is that true?" he asked.

I frowned. It was true, but at the same time, it wasn't. It also irritated me. I mean, first off, it wasn't my child. It was hers. Godric should know that. Then again, he was Old World that way, when a vampire chose a human, that human and all of their blood belonged to you. That included providing for them and protecting them. I supposed to him there was no difference. If she would admit that the child wasn't mine, I would feel as Godric did, but that wasn't the point I wanted to argue at the moment.

It was the fact that my mate was talking to Hagatha and not me. She fell asleep in my arms every night, so she had countless opportunities. Somehow, Amelia was preferable, and so was Preston. It seemed that Sookie always needed me more than she ever wanted me.

"I don't know anymore, what I want or why."

I walked away from that conversation feeling low. I continued to watch Sookie and I continued to ache for her. I continued to miss her. Now I was at the point where I no longer wanted space, but I didn't know how to go back to the easy place we had been.

My opening came a few weeks later. I rose to find Amelia vandalizing my mate. "What the hell are you doing to her?" I snapped as I walked into the room.

Sookie was in a bikini top and a sarong. Amelia was painting her stomach. It was a piss-poor replica of 'Starry Nights' by Van Gogh.

"Go fuck a zombie, will you, Nosferatu?" she replied, giving me the finger.

I didn't even think about it. Gently I helped Sookie from her seat and pulled her under my arm. "Go back to Hogwarts, Hermione!" I retorted. This was the first time in months that any real energy had gone into our bickering. It felt good!

"It looks good," Sookie commented. "I like it!"

I noticed that her fingernails were bright red. I wanted to kick Amelia's ass. Red didn't suit her, not here, not when she was dressed in all green and glowing. Most of all, I knew that wasn't a color she would wear.

"I'm pretty sure the poor kid doesn't want the Wicked Witch of The West doodling on his head," I replied, pulling Sookie out of the room with me. "While you're at Hogwarts, take a fucking art class."

I continued walking with Sookie in tow until we arrived at the lake. I knew it was one of her favorite places. Of course I noticed that she never went in. The fear of the Water Fae was rooted too deeply; getting into a natural body of water was a death sentence for her.

Stripping, I entered the stream and stood under the cataract. Was I trying to be intentionally seductive? Maybe. It didn't matter what my intent was. I let the water wash over me and I felt Sookie's eyes on me like a caress. The scent of her desire hit the air and it sent a shiver down my spine. It was as if nothing had changed: She wanted me and I wanted her. Nothing else mattered.

I waded to the water's edge. Her eyes never left my body. She was leaning forward slightly as she watched me, but she never got close enough to the lake for splashes from the cascade to hit her clothes.

"Come here, lover." I held out my hand to her.

I knew she wanted to but she looked at the pool, and she shook her head. "I can't," she said, scooting back. It looked as though it took more will than she had to put the distance between us.

"You are safe," I said.

She nodded. "I know, it's no more than a bathtub, but…"

"Trust me," I said, pulling my top half out of the water. "I would never let anything hurt you."

She looked as though she would protest, but she just stared with parted lips. I didn't know I was going to kiss her until I did it. I was dripping wet and she was much too dry for my liking. When out lips touched, we both moaned. The tenor was the same; needy.

"We shouldn't," she said, burying her face in my chest. "You know why we shouldn't."

All the while, her fingers ran through my damp hair and wound around my neck. Her refusal was taking every shred of control she had. It didn't matter if I'd never figured out if what I felt for her was real. I no longer cared. I knew what this meant. Our bond would grow stronger. That wasn't what I feared; I feared not having her. I feared returning to the place where she was nothing but a wish I couldn't have fulfilled. Nothing was worse than that.

"I want you," I begged, unable to help myself. "I've wanted you for so long now."

"Even like this?" she asked, looking down at her bloated abdomen.

She really was crazy. What was there not to want? "Just like this."

Her will broke and mine had never truly been. When she claimed my lips in earnest, I felt all the things I didn't know I'd been starving for spark back to life. It was equal parts hunger, relief, and desire.

I had her there and then. There was no rush. She wasn't burning with need and I wasn't driven out of my mind with the urge to sate it. The last time I'd been with her was the night in Alpine. Then it had been to soothe a pain that ran too deeply for her to handle. My need was desperate and so was hers, but I wasn't rough with her.

This was two halves of a whole coming together. We took our time. I touched each and every part of her. Her breasts were more sensitive. The feel of me invading her body was enough to have her shuddering in ecstasy.

I was buried in her to the hilt. We were sprawled in the grass with me spooning her. My face and my fingers were in her hair as I continued to drive in and out of her. Despite the angle, her lips found mine and our tongues dueled as I caressed her intimately. Sookie gave me herself fervently, desperately. Just as the first time the craving to drink her was strong, but the urge to feed her my blood was stronger.

"Drink," I said, piercing my wrist and bringing the wound to her lips. "Need you to."

I didn't care that she didn't want it. She needed it, and I wanted to provide. I didn't give her a chance to refuse. She had made me hers in the Fae way, and I wanted to make her mine in the way my kind did. This was the one thing I had to have from her that was just my own. I wanted to feel me inside her, in addition to the mating mark. I didn't care that we were already so tightly bound.

There was no hesitation. Sookie was hungry for me in more ways than one. She latched on and the feel of her mouth alone elicited a throaty growl from me. That was before she sucked greedily and sank her teeth in to keep the wound from closing. Being inside of her and having her teeth in me was too much. The pain was so sweet it left me unable to stave off my release. I clutched her to me, mindful of her belly.

We made love a few more times. Finally, I was able to coax her into the lake. It shouldn't please me that she trusted me more than her instincts, but it did. Despite not knowing how to swim, she was a natural in the water. All I had been trying to deny, I found in the time I spent with her. The sense of deprivation was gone. There was no longing or ache to haunt me as I watched her from the distance.

I couldn't tell who wanted the intimacy of sex more. Sookie and I were at each other almost always. There had been months of abstinence and unclear emotion to sate. Sex helped us find even keel. It rekindled our easy friendship. It didn't mean I'd let go of the biggest problem I had with her. Surprisingly, it wasn't the mating marks. I could admit that neither of us had control over that. Sookie had lied to me. She was still lying to me, as well as to Godric and Amelia.

If she would only just admit her child wasn't mine, it would end all my confusion. She either wouldn't or couldn't, and I couldn't bring myself to broach the topic. The problem was I could understand her position. Mothers had done far worse to keep their children safe. I wouldn't hold it against her. I just didn't want to have to make excuses for her. I refused to do that for another woman or anyone else ever again.

As the birth of her child grew nearer, that one thing still remained between us. Sookie also wanted sex less, but it didn't make me want to be farther from her. Holding her close still felt like the truest thing in the world. It felt right and yet, it was so wrong. I knew the consequences each time we made love, but it still wasn't enough to make us stop.

Four months later, I rose and the first thing I felt was Sookie's discomfort. She wasn't in danger or pain. She was just wasn't as relaxed as I had become accustomed to. I was beside her before I decided to move. It startled her.

"I'm sorry, love," I said, kissing her head.

"S'okay baby," she greeted with a bright smile.

Not wanting to make her more anxious, I simply sat beside her. Maybe I had caught her at a bad moment, her child might have kicked too hard, she might have bumped her toe or something miniscule. After five minutes the my skin began to crawl, alerting me to her unrest.

"You are alright?" I asked.

She looked up at me. "Yeah…" she said, sounding uncertain. "I don't feel alright to you?"

I shook head. "Not really, it feels like you're uncomfortable," I replied.

I could see her assessing her body to verify or deny my words. "He's been kicking me like a pissed off mule all day but there's no pain, just pressure."

A half hour later, she yawned and stretched. I saw her child move across her abdomen. She patted him affectionately, but that was it. She didn't have to ask me to help her up, nor did she have to ask me to help her into bed. Tonight was no different.

I talked to her. The things I had to say were getting more and more personal but they were in languages she didn't understand. I held her and before long, she fell asleep. All the while, her discomfort grew. It turned into a sickly feeling. It was creeping into my body but she just kept on snoring softly.

Concerned, I called Amelia. All she did was scratch her head in confusion. Together she, Godric and I watched as Sookie slept through the beginning of childbirth. Two hours later, her eyes sprang open. Her hand was under pillow reaching for a dagger she kept there within the same breath.

I flew to her side. This was the way she always woke. Nothing had changed. I knew well enough not to force her awake. I pulled her head into my chest.

At first, Sookie stiffened, and I felt the sharp sting of a dagger clear my ribs, more than likely she had punctured a lung. Since I wasn't a breather it was no big deal. It wasn't pleasant but I forced my body to remain relaxed, so it was about halfway in me when she stopped. I heard her draw a breath like someone who had been drowning. Then she pulled away from me and looked at what she had done. Her face fell and she looked like she always did, ashamed.

"God Eric…I'm so—"

I kissed her lips softly. When this happened, the guilt she felt was greater than any injury she inflicted. So she tried to comfort me after and I did the same for her.

"You're okay. It's okay."

Slowly she stopped shaking. "The baby's coming," she finally said, stating the obvious.

"I speak for us all when I say, 'no shit,'" Amelia said.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the late update, life has been conspiring against me. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**I'm an Asshole, But I'm Yours**

I felt a pang of something akin to guilt as Amelia began tending to her. I sat quietly and stayed out of her way. I knew Sookie would need me at some point to manage the pain but not now. When Sookie moved to get out of the bed, I cringed.

"I've never given birth, but I'm almost sure she's not supposed to that," I bit out.

"Like all men, he's dragging his ass," The Witch replied with a chuckle. "Her walking will get him moving."

Then she helped her to her feet. Apparently, this was an acceptable thing to do. This went on for a while. Sookie was even doing it alone and adding squats to the mix of inappropriately timed aerobics. All we did was stare.

"You guys are creeping me out," she snapped. "Turn down the high beams." Her calm demeanor and easy disposition was long gone. Now she had the temperament of a pissed off junkyard dog. It wasn't pretty but it was understandable.

"I was expecting more…drama," Godric whispered to me. "Is that the right word?" He paused and then he answered his own question. "No, fanfare might be more appropriate. Yes, I was expecting more fanfare."

"Fireworks only happen when you're making the baby," Amelia deadpanned.

Sookie chuckled between strained breaths. "Well, if you want, I could scream and curse," she replied dryly.

Godric smiled, but of course, Amelia had to throw in her two cents though no one asked her. "Please direct them at him," she said, sending a dirty look my way. "Goddess knows he needs it, the douche."

"Pull the broomstick out of your ass witch," I retorted.

Sookie looked at Godric. He looked at her and they both rolled their eyes.

"Whatever, Count Goldilocks," she replied.

I let her have that one because she moved toward Sookie and helped back into bed. Then she checked her. Throughout all of this, I'd been still as a statue and just as quiet. I was wrestling with my emotions. Sookie was my mate. If only for a little while longer, we were mated. No matter how many times we'd had sex, the blue of the mating marks didn't appear. It gave me the confirmation I needed. We weren't made to be together longer than that weekend.

Once the fleeting nature of the union had elated me. I didn't want to settle. I had resented the sudden and total intrusion on my life. I sure as shit didn't want to fight in a war to save the world. It was understood that I wanted nothing to do with a child. Now…now I didn't want the mating marks, but I didn't want her to go either.

The father of her child didn't matter, neither did the lie she had told me. I wanted her. I didn't want her to fight, and I didn't want her to die. I didn't want her to be left all alone to defend her child. I shook the thought aside. After all, she had said nothing about staying or changing the plan. I needed to place emotional distance as to better prepare for the impending physical one.

It didn't remain suppressed for long. The fact that my mate needed me was a distressing feeling. It was like when you were trying to recall something you knew was impossible to forget. Therefore, your mind kept searching. I was purposely ignoring that annoying feeling. While we had called a ceasefire to our hostility, this wasn't something I ever wanted to do. The opposing feelings continued to clash and I was getting irritated.

"You're good to go," Amelia announced a while later, "Whenever you get the urge, push."

Then she took a seat. It took me from irritated to angry. "What are you doing?" I snarled. "Help her!"

"Help her do what?" she snapped. "She can push now so there is nothing for me to do but catch."

I growled and looked at my maker. His wife and I were going to have it out if he didn't do something and fast. It wasn't going to our harmless back and forth. He waved me back with fangs exposed, I obeyed.

"You are experienced my love," he began "Perhaps you could do something more." He began looking at her. What that more was, he had no idea admittedly, neither did I, but Amelia should and I wanted her to do it.

"Like what?" she asked. "I didn't knock her up. Offering strength and emotional support is the baby daddy's responsibility. So is being slapped and cursed at. He wants me to do his job."

It was on the tip of my tongue to inform her that I didn't knock Sookie up either, but paternity was far behind anger.

"It's fine," Sookie said. Outside the flush of her cheeks and the contrived way she was drawing breath, she appeared fine. "I can deal."

It was then I realized that while I had had mixed feelings about my role, Sookie had never counted on me. We had sex. She trusted me to keep her safe and to provide for her certainly, but not for this. It wasn't a desire to prove her wrong that decided me. It was the fact that she understood. She hadn't counted me out because she didn't have faith. She did it because she didn't want to force me to do something she knew I was uncomfortable with.

Honestly, I never fully accepted that taking a vampire to bed was a desperate act because Sookie never wanted a child. How could I accept that? She had been devoted and attached to him from the moment she realized that he lived within her. I had seen it as proof that she was using me because I was her best option.

In all actuality, the mating marks didn't make me care about her. It was the opposite; I refused to believe that anything I felt was genuine. I refused it to the point that I thought nothing with her was real. Without the tattoos, I couldn't say that I wouldn't have welcomed her back if ever I saw her again. I couldn't say that I wouldn't want more from her than sex.

Sookie had been right. I hadn't been able to be with anyone else because I didn't want to, not really. I'd just been trying to forget that wasn't the same thing as desire. Looking back at the first night I met her there had been no marks, just blinding lust, desire, passionate sex, and our similar personalities. She was like me, or at least as I used to be. That weekend she had been light and free. She had smiled as she interacted with anyone. She had been open with me. Why did I believe her then when she had been a stranger than I had every day I'd spent with her since?

In the midst of all that we faced, Sookie didn't try to take from me emotionally. I never stopped to consider that she was suffering the same upheaval. No, it wasn't the same, hers had been worse. It was as if fate had conspired against her. Everything she had ever known to be true was a lie. The only family she had ever known hunted her. Then she was bound to a male who had been doing the bare minimum, a male who had been mistreating her.

All I had done was lash out when doubt filled me, and punished her with distance when I felt my attachment growing. When I wasn't doing that, I was blaming her for everything that had gone wrong since our paths crossed. I had been hot and cold, caring and callous. She just let me. She tried to make up for sudden disruption of my life with patience and understanding. That made me feel so much worse.

I didn't regret spending that weekend with her. I didn't regret the journey that had led us here. What I did regret was the way I had treated her. It didn't matter if the child wasn't mine. She was mine and that was enough. I was her mate, and it wasn't just her safety that was my duty, it was her happiness. I knew I hadn't been making her happy. Yet, to make me happy she had been hiding the fact.

I have lived with no regret, guilt, or shame for so long that I forgot what it felt like. This one thing made me feel like I harbored a million regrets.

"It is, so go toil over a cauldron or something," I said, getting to my feet.

Without a single dirty look, she walked out and Godric followed.

I sat on the bed beside my mate. I propped her up but all the while, she watched me skeptically. It was though she was expecting me to leave and when I didn't, she didn't know what to do.

"You don't have to be here," she said, trying to breathe through her pain. "I'm good. It hurts but I'm okay. You know I am."

"I know," I said, with a smile. "I want to be right here with you."

"You don't believe that this your child," she said.

While I never spoke of her child as mine, she never claimed he was, outside the first night she told me of her condition. We apparently had a silent understanding so I wasn't sure why her words cut as deep as they did. It wasn't that I didn't care, I did.

"You never did," she whispered. "You think I lied because I needed you and that's okay too. I understand why but he's yours, Eric. I swear he is."

Her expression was unfathomable. It was such a potent blend of sadness, pain, dejection, and hopelessness. It was nothing like I'd ever seen before, not even when she had had her identity ripped away. I pulled her into my arms as closely as her position would allow. She kissed my cheek and ran her fingers through my hair. It was a show of comfort, and it shamed me all the more. I felt lower than dirt. Sookie might not be able to hurt me, but I wanted to kick my own ass.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I am so sorry I hurt you."

Despite the pain she was in, she was still trying to comfort me. "It's okay, baby." She huffed.

"No it isn't," I murmured. "I haven't been good to you. I antagonized you and left you alone to deal with so much. I've been a coward."

She looked like she wanted to laugh but couldn't spare the breath necessary. "No, sweetheart. Sure, you were a jerk, a pain in my ass, and an asshole, but I never let it get to me. Neither of us had a choice in any of this. For an Alpha like you, and control freak like me, that brings out the worst in us." She gasped and pain furrowed her brow but she pushed through it. "Detachment was your way to deal. Giving you all the space you needed was mine."

I didn't believe her when she had said the marks were for balance not control. I wanted to apologize a million times, but that wasn't what she needed or wanted. It wasn't what would make this right. I brought my cheek to rest against her head. "Whether we save the world or whether it burns to the ground, there is no place I'd rather be than with you."

She nodded and tears escaped her eyes, but it wasn't a marker for pain. "Right back at you baby," she huffed. It was clear that discomfort had risen to volumes she couldn't easily ignore.

I held her hand as I proceeded to state the obvious. "Our timing for this conversation sucked."

She smiled brightly. "Big time."

Sookie's discomfort began to register as full-blown agony. I knew she was trying to control it but it did no good. Her pain settled into every nerve ending I had. The bonding mark had nothing to guide me outside the obvious. I held her hand and whispered words of comfort and encouragement.

"I swear if I could…" Sookie whimpered. "I'd knock your fucking fangs down your throat," She cried out through another pain filled contraction. She was trying to choke back screams but as she pushed, it became impossible. She controlled her breathing and I kept count for her. Her fingers were laced in mine, but no tears escaped her eyes. It was my guess that she had endured so much worse out of senseless hate. Suffering this labor of love was nothing to her in comparison.

Amelia waited to receive the child. With one final push, the silence of the house was pierced by the wails of an infant. I saw my son take his first breath. He cried and flayed his arms and legs reflexively.

All I could do was stare. It was as if I wasn't in my body. The past two hundred years I had forgotten what it was like to be so deeply in love. I had forgotten what pure devotion and attachment felt like. I looked at my son's pissed off features and I felt it. I couldn't even begin to explain it all. I watched him and everything I'd doubted since his mother found me was washed away.

Why did I ever think I couldn't trust her? It was because of Freyda. She was someone I hated and after all this time, she could keep me from seeing what it was like to have someone that wasn't of my blood care for me. In living how I did, I hadn't been freeing myself from her. I'd been empowering her, but no more. Amelia cleaned my son and placed him in his mother's arms and I just gawked. I didn't know how long I sat in that chair utterly stunned, but soon it was just Sookie, my son and me.

This was the first time the convenience of the mating mark didn't unsettle me. It didn't bother me that it was nothing like a blood bond between a vampire and their human. It didn't bother me that I couldn't control it. I accepted it. I accepted her and our son. Sookie offered him to me. It soothed me in a way nothing else could.

"I need to heal." she confessed.

She shivered as if she was cold, but fresh sweat was dotting her brow. I should have been paying better attention. Since the day she showed up at the bar of Fangtasia I'd kept her safe. I'd never witnessed her regenerative abilities. It was something I never I wanted to test. Cautiously, I moved forward to take him from her. His eyes were closed. His face seemed so familiar, but yet so undistinguished.

"What does he need?" I asked poking him, experimentally. He cooed and leaned in to his mother, but otherwise paid the contact no mind.

She chuckled, weakly. "First off he needs you to stop poking and prodding at him," she murmured.

I looked down at her and I couldn't deny the sighs of her duress. "Maybe I should call Amelia?" I asked, looking at her paling features.

She shook her head. "Your son took a lot out of me. My body just needs to revert to normal after carrying him so long. I'll sleep. When I wake up I'll be good as new, promise."

She kissed the baby's head and signaled for me to take him, so I did. He was tiny and my arms encompassed him almost three times over, but I knew he was secure. I had expected him to stir once he left his mother's warmth. I clutched him to me. He burrowed just as deeply into my chest.

I leaned down and kissed my mate's lips. "You might be a Sleeping Beauty but I'm no Prince Charming. I'll shake the shit out of you if you take too long to wake up."

She chuckled softly and rubbed her face against my hand. Her lids were dropping closed but her last words were, "I'm going to miss him kicking me." She sighed.

I sat and talked to her about everything. Her breaths deepened and her pulse dipped. The decline was slow and steady. My senses might be screaming at me that she was dying, but my heart knew better. Admittedly, it was because of the bonding marks. If not, I wouldn't have been able to watch as her vitals continued to fall. There was no feeling of discomfort. That sickly feeling of her being hurt or in danger didn't jolt down my spine. She would come back.

Amelia cleaned Sookie and I took the baby downstairs. Godric was waiting eagerly. While he believed it, he definitely still wanted to see it. However, he looked alarmed at the prospect of holding my son. Like me, he sniffed at him. He was still asleep in my arms because I didn't think I was supposed to set him down, nor did I want to.

"Is he supposed to look like this?" My maker asked curiously. "He's squishy, pudgy even." He gently pinched my son's arm at the elbow. The touch was so light he didn't stir.

"His mother didn't seem worried." Simultaneously, Godric and I leaned our heads down to closer examine him.

With the company I kept and what I did for a living, I couldn't tell you what an infant looked like. Yet, he looked fine to me. He was healthy and wasn't showing any signs of duress. That was how Amelia found us, sniffing, and prodding at the sleeping child under the kitchen light.

"Swear to Goddess, you vampires are so effin' creepy," she said, shaking a bottle. "What are you doing that poor boy?"

"He smells very sweet, but not edible," he paused and sniffed some more. "Like…humans and flowers, yes? Like that." He offered my son's arm to Amelia. "Feel, he is squishy too," Godric said, all of that and he somehow made it sound like a professional opinion, and the funniest thing I'd ever heard!

Amelia rolled her eyes and handed me the bottle she'd made. "And what part of that wasn't creepy?"

I tried to feed my son but he turned his head away. It took a full hour of him crying for us to realize that he wouldn't drink formula straight up. I couldn't say I blamed him, it smelled horrid. It had to be diluted with blood or more water. That was the only hardship. I kept my son with me. He slept and only woke up to eat. We sat by Sookie's bedside. I smiled to myself; this was probably the best rest she had ever had.

I watched her and noticed slight changes. It made me see just how fatigued carrying our child made her. Her pregnancy had a stressful beginning and had lasted longer than what she had expected. Trying to support an incompatible fetus had taken a lot of energy; with each passing month her body was almost always in a state of exhaustion.

I continued seeing changes with each passing hour. Her skin began taking on its usual sun-kissed hue. I talked to my mate, or read one of her cheesy romance novels to her. Five hours passed and the differences were becoming more prominent. Her body slimmed, her skin glowed, and her scent seemed to be changing. I'd thought I had become desensitized to her mouthwatering, light, airy flavor, but being pregnant had altered that too.

I was hoping Sookie would wake before the sun went down again but she didn't. I left my son with Amelia hoping by the next night, his mother would wake. The sun rose and my mate looked just like she did the night before. Anxiety was rising though I knew she was fine. I suppose it wasn't anxiety; I just missed her. I washed her body, brushed her hair, and changed her clothes. I wanted to stay with her but I had to relieve Amelia of my son.

When I turned the corner into the kitchen, Sookie was standing in front of me, in the pink dress I'd dressed her in. It was plain. It wasn't meant to accommodate her distended belly. It was just for her to wear and she was gorgeous in it. It was something I'd bought for her. She had admired it while we had been on the run. Before she could have her bag get her one, I'd bought it. I remembered how it had confused her. I hadn't bought it because she wouldn't have been able to get it otherwise. I'd bought it for her because no one had ever bestowed anything upon her in her life.

I stared at my mate and she smirked. The looks in our eyes were identical. There was longing, relief, happiness, and so much love. "Took you long enough," I said wryly "I was on my way to shake you for shirking baby duty."

She laughed, and just hearing it made me wonder how I had ever gone without it. It made the suffering of the world worth enduring. There was a beatific smile on her face as she came to look at our son. I gave to him to her and she held him tight to her. Despite the unplanned nature of his conception, regardless of all that had sacrificed and suffered, the look of pure adoration on her said he was worth it. Every injury she had sustained, every hardship, every ounce of pain she had endured to give him life, I knew she would do all over again.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**God Killer**

"Hi Kai," she crooned, rubbing her cheek against his head.

We all arched a brow. "Kai?" I asked. I really hoped that wasn't her vote for a name.

She nodded. "The full name is Katairu. It's Elvish. It means, 'Ruler of thyself'."

Already I knew I would have to go along with it because I understood the significance. Me being me, I couldn't help but give her a hard time of it. "Is it like Cher or does he get a last name?"

She slapped me and kissed him. "Northman."

Godric and Amelia went off to do their own thing, leaving just Sookie, Kai, and me to spend time together. We were sprawled in the floor in front of the fire. I was a mattress and a pillow; Kai was sleeping on my chest, his mother had her head resting on my arm and her thigh was thrown over mine. The feeling of wholeness and warmth bloomed as the day wore on.

We didn't speak. It wasn't uncommon for Sookie and me to go hours without speaking. I had thought it was because the mating marks made one insightful about the other. That wasn't the case. I don't know why I never let that weekend guide me while I was confused about my feelings. The second night we had gone to the street performance she didn't prattle. It was just her personality and mine. Sometimes silence said what a million words couldn't. In addition, I just needed to feel her close to me after the day of deprivation.

"Baby," she murmured.

"Yes love?"

"Why the hell did you think I wanted to hear you sing 'West Side Story' while I was unconscious?"

I laughed softly. I knew she had been there, I just wanted to see how much of her was with me. "It was to annoy the shit out of you."

She slapped me playfully. "I'm going to be singing 'I want to live in America' for a good long while."

"Please, just hum it…your singing is horrendous."

"It's not that bad," she retorted, positioning our son on her chest. "I've improved."

I arched a dubious brow. "If that's the case then what you were doing before should classify as an instrument of torture."

"You're lucky I love you," she harrumphed.

I smiled and kissed her temple. "Or what?" I asked. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I'd get to singing," she threatened.

Part of being a vampire was knowing when you were beat and she certainly had me there. I raised my hands in surrender. "I am glad you love me and I love you too."

It was almost sunset and Amelia came for Kai. It left me and Sookie alone. I was ready to lay with her as she slept but once we got to our room it was clear that sleep was the furthest thing from her mind. There was nothing that had ever tempted me more than her body. I knew I wanted her and that she wanted me. What I couldn't tell was if it would hurt her. She had just given birth two days ago. Still when Sookie kissed me, I kissed her but she knew I was holding back.

"I heal almost as fast as you do," she murmured pulling her dress off. I was sure I had a reply, something sophisticated or witty to say, but my brain simply wasn't on board. She was in a green and black negligée. "I can and I want to."

That was all I needed. I shed my shirt and before she could blink, I had us both on the bed. While I loved the way she looked in the lingerie she wore, I wanted nothing between us. I hoped she wasn't attached to them because I didn't have the patience to remove them. Before I could rip them off her, her body heated and the rest of our clothes disappeared. God Killer powers were handy in the bedroom.

There was no time for foreplay. We hadn't have sex in over a month. Both of us were suffering from need that was deeper than what we could handle. The first bout of our lovemaking was short but a rematch wasn't far behind.

"I like when you come inside me," Sookie said crawling over me. I had pulled out of her. I thought it was safest.

"I remember you expressing a desire to knock my fangs down my throat not too long ago," I whispered, nipping playfully at her lips.

She chuckled. "I like your fangs," she murmured. "And a lot of other things about you, lucky for me I get to enjoy it all for a few years before I go into heat."

With that I felt my hands pinned at my sides. I arched a brow. I knew this was going to be mind-blowing and I could hardly wait. She could never disappoint me but she took anything I thought I'd ever enjoyed and redefined it. I was introduced into a new kind of sex. I had never allowed myself to be dominated but she took from me all I had to give and so much more. No one had ever enjoyed submission more. She owned me, and she made sure I would never forget it.

Sookie didn't just have the power to restrain me. She could fight me when I struggled but what completely turned me on my head was the fact that she could work more than a few of my spots at a time. My mate's fingers were gently tugging at my hair. Her body was taking me so deep into her warm wet core. Her lips were on my mine but it felt like I also had the feel of her kissing my tightened sac and the base of my neck.

We made love and she slept and we went at each other again. Finally I was told firmly to keep my hands to myself. It wasn't my fault she couldn't tell me no but I complied for about two hours. At some point before dark I caught her in the bathroom after her shower.

"Doesn't makes sense that you'll get clean just to get dirty again," I whispered. I kissed her and palmed her ass to bring me closer to her heat.

"Vampire or not you can't still want more," she said. I knew she was going to give into me.

I pressed the hardened proof of my desire against her. "That's a flashlight."

Sookie chuckled and bit me for the cheeky retort. The slight pain only made me want her more. I lifted her and sat her on the counter.

"I need to learn to keep my legs closed," she moaned in defeat. I smiled and kissed a trail down her neck. "I shouldn't but I want you so fucking bad…" Her hold on me was firm and she was urging me on to the point that I was going to cum a minute after I slid inside her soaking sex.

I smiled, unable to keep from teasing her. "If memory serves you've had me, very recently too," I murmured as I tweaked her hardened nipples between my fingers. She drew in a sharp breath and thrust her breasts up, begging for more.

"Eric," she begged. "If you don't give me what I want, I'm going to take it."

I spread her legs on the counter and dropped to my knees. All I gave her were licks to incite and taste but not hard enough to make her cream. I shouldn't toy with her. I shouldn't rile a God Killer but I did so at great personal risk. That was one of my flaws, I'd always been more curious than cautious.

Sookie had her bottom lips between her teeth. She squeezed her breasts and plucked at her nipples with her head thrown back. I loved it when I aroused her to the point that she needed to touch herself to ease the ache. I kissed her cleft and ignored the way her hips arched. There were cries of pleasure and whimpers of frustration. I knew she was trying not to make good on her promise. The thing was, I wanted her to.

I knew she would cave so I circled her slick core with my finger but didn't put it inside her. It was that one thing that pushed her too far. She knotted her fingers in my hair and it hurt good. She pulled me away from her and the next thing I knew I was on the tiled floor. I couldn't move but my cock was jutting out proudly from my body.

Sookie crawled over me and kissed my lips. It wasn't to taste me, it was to claim me. She offered me a taste of her perfect breasts. Then she rose up and I knew she wanted to straddle my face. She was hunched forward and her fingers were in my hair but her eyes were on me.

"I want to cum in your mouth," she ordered.

"What if I don't want that?" I asked.

"Too bad," she said, "You shouldn't have gotten me started." Then she positioned her sweet pink flesh over my lips and using the hold she had on my hair to guide me where she wanted me. The more pleasure I gave her the weaker her hold over me became. My hands were free and I used them to rock her into every lash of my tongue. Her legs quaked and I felt the tension in her body as her climax built. When I put my fingers in her and curled them, she came, but I wanted to taste more of her sweet nectar. I flipped her on her back and continued my feast.

It wasn't until after her second orgasm did I take her. She was on the counter on her back with her legs spread. She was at my mercy and I showed her none. I hooked my arms behind her knees and drove in and out of her hungry pussy.

"Ugh…" she sobbed. "Baby…please—,"

"Take it," and she did.

Her legs were trembling; she was hoarse from screaming and all the while her orgasms kept coming. I threw her legs over my shoulders. She reached down and massaged her clit and she tensed, clenching my cock tighter and deeper into her hot body. My thrusts were harder and I rode her as roughly as she could handle and still she only wanted more.

I couldn't stave off my release any longer. With a throaty growl, I came. My body quivered as I sprayed stream after stream of my pleasure inside her. I collapsed on top of her and tried to get my bearings. It was never easy after we made love like this. It made me imagine what it would be like when she went into heat again.

"It's good that you're only fertile every few years, otherwise I'd turn you into the old lady that lived in a shoe."

She laughed and the sound of it was just as heavenly as the first time I heard it. I couldn't help but smile. Then she slapped me upside my head, but kissed my cheek as she held me tighter. "‛Old lady' says Father Time."

Sookie bonded with him while she was pregnant. I became infatuated the moment my son was born. For the first few months of his life I couldn't remember Kai being set down. He was the center of attention of two S7 vampires, a God Killer and a powerful witch. Kai was choosy about the temperature of the person holding him. It was dependent on the time of day. Sookie had him during the nights and I had him in the day. When we wanted time alone, Godric took him, and vice versa, when Sookie needed relief Amelia was there.

When Kai was three months old, his mother decided her strength was back enough to start training again. I knew Sookie was fast, but what I had witnessed while she was with child was no comparison. It had made her slower and weaker. She sparred with Godric. Yes, it was true that my maker was almost two thousand years old but my mate was a God Killer. Amelia and I watched as our spouses squared off. Was it depraved that we placed bets? Absolutely, but we did it anyway.

"Just for the record, spells and incantations are not acceptable forms of payment," I told her after we shook hands.

"Neither is blood or a coffin," she retorted. "And I want my money this decade too, asshole."

I laughed. The last time we made a wager, I had lost and I told her I would pay her later. I just didn't specify when. It was almost a hundred years later and I still owed her fifty dollars. It might have been a lot of money back then but it was chump change now. I would wait until it's value was that of a penny before I paid her back. Not doing so would undermine the spirit of our unfriendly friendship.

"You may use a weapon of your choice," My maker offered.

"No," Sookie said, rolling her neck. "I just want to test where I am physically."

Where she was was crazy strong. What was scary? She frowned and complained that she had gotten rusty. The next training sessions between Godric and Sookie had gotten more and more heated. He was going full throttle and she still won. I saw with each passing day her attacks got more and more precise.

Reluctantly, my mate let me join after the first two weeks. I was more of a diversion than a help. That was exactly why we needed to work on it. In the first match up, Godric had her pinned in three seconds flat. Our eyes met and I knew we were having the same thought. She might be powerful and so was I, but we were each greatest weakness.

That was how the tone was set for the following match ups that I joined. Godric was doing what any one of our enemies would. He stopped attacking Sookie head on and directed his energy solely towards me. She couldn't run interference, offense, _and _defense. My maker wiped the floor with her every time.

"That's 12-0," Amelia called from the sidelines.

Sookie was on her stomach. Godric had his knee on her back and pinned her hands behind her back. It had been a long week of watching Sookie get her ass kicked night after night. It hurt more because it was my fault and I couldn't help it.

"I almost feel bad about taking your money at this point," Amelia said. "Soon you won't have enough for your dye jobs or hair extensions."

I flipped her a one-fingered retort. Sookie chuckled, and I glared at her but for a whole different reason. While I was dreading her ass kicking to come, she was laughing. These sessions where I acted as her Achilles heel were becoming something I truly hated. No matter how much I hated them, they were necessary. In between sleeping, caring for our son, and spending time with me, Sookie trained. So far, there was nothing.

Godric helped Sookie up and she shook her head as if she had a hive of bees buzzing about in her skull. For all the damage I knew she had taken, pain wasn't registering. She was incredibly resistant. That should be enough to make this bearable, but it wasn't. I needed a break. Every hit she had taken made me wince, every time she hit the ground I cringed internally. I wanted to bite her and Godric both.

"That's enough," I ordered.

"S'okay," she said, wiping the dirt off her face. "I'm about tired of eating dirt." I thought she would quit but instead she stood off in the distance and the energy she gave off began to change. The wind blew in an unnatural way, causing her hair to billow softly. Under the moon, her skin was giving off an effervescent glow. It was the same for vampires, but hers felt warmer in the air, tangible as it was alive. I had a feeling that the God Killer was coming out to play. I wasn't wrong.

She clapped her hands and blue flames ignited. When she pulled them apart, there was a tiny spider web in her hands that was made of fire. Slowly she pulled her hands farther apart and the net became bigger. With the tension she exerted, they shrank or grew. Amelia looked concerned for her mate. Admittedly, I was equally concerned for my maker. That was at least until my mate faced me.

I backed away and put my up hands. Whatever was going on with radioactive spider web was something I wanted nothing to do with. "If this is about _Gone with the Wind_, I change my mind. It's my all time favorite too. I especially enjoyed the parts with the cowboys and Indians."

There was a smile on her face that was coy and alluring; at least that was what I saw. I was sure it differed greatly from anyone else's interpretation. She flicked all ten of her fingers at me and the web shot out. For a fraction in time, it disappeared. I didn't see it again until I felt the heat of it close to my face, and then it engulfed my whole body. It was a warm sensation that tickled. Finally, she found a way to protect me in the heat of battle without harm or sacrificing her skill.

I shot Amelia a smug grin. Godric was about to get owned. He knew it, too, because he looked toward Amelia. "This seems like your kind of thing."

She set Kai down in his bouncer and jumped right in. Though I would suck silver before I told my evil stepmother, but I gained new respect for her. She sat still in a protected circle and focused on breaking the protection of the flames. They flickered and dulled, but didn't extinguish. While she did that, Godric mounted an all-out physical attack. Their fight was frighteningly mismatched. Amelia evened the scales. In addition to chipping away at my protective barrier, she threw one hex after another. Some of them involved using the trees, gusts of wind, water, and the ground to attack Sookie. Others were more direct. Her fingers glowed and flashes of energy shot toward my mate.

The nightly sparring matches were the only thing that spoke of a life outside this haven.

When we were inside, we played games, watched television, or just talked shit to one another. Okay, that last bit was Amelia and me. Sookie and Godric refereed. Three months later and life was nothing like I could have ever imagined. Indeed, it was so much more than I could have ever dared to dream.

My son was happy, healthy, and well cared for. There were more than enough hands to attend to him. That might be why he never cried or it might be that he was always eating. Either way, he was easy to manage. He grew more every day. Never before had life been this good, this meaningful, or this rewarding.

With every night I spent with Kai, I was thinking more and more about Godric's offer. Sookie and I could stay here. We would be safe. We could shut out the rest of the world. We would never have to worry about Kai. Maybe we would venture out into the real world when he was older, if there was a world left.

I sighed. I knew we wouldn't. How could we keep him locked away, never knowing anyone but the four of us? How would we explain that to him when he got older? We couldn't.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm so glad we can get back on track but I alas, I might have to slow it down. Currently I am working in conjunction with my awesome Beta's on the end. Yes, it happens so fast. Just three weeks ago I began this new story adventure with all of you, now we are a little over ten chapters away from the end. I can't lie I want it to go on forever but all good things must come to an end...

(If that sounded ominous it was totally supposed to)


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**Set You Free**

The playful feel of Americ had been slowly losing its shine. The older Kai got, the closer our return to the real world came. When Kai turned six months old, it would mark my official one-year anniversary as a deserter from the Enforcer Guild. First things first, I would have to turn myself in, go through the farce of a trail, after which the Old Bat might be able to brainstorm some ideas with us on how to save the world. So far we hadn't come up with much.

I'd planned on having Sookie stay behind in Americ with Kai. I tried to voice it once and I was told quite colorfully to go have sexual relations with a zombie. There was no way she would leave me to face unknown dangers while she sat on the sidelines. No matter how powerful she was I knew I would feel the same exact way.

The worst case scenario was that the world as was we knew it would end. Next to that, was the possibility that the world remained but neither Sookie nor I survived. It wasn't that I was a pessimist, I've just seen shit hit the fan too many times. This was going to be a shit storm. Those thought were weighing on my mind when my maker found me sitting alone by the lake. Kai on his back, being poked at me at intervals. It was a running joke, now when the vampires prodded at him he laughed.

"You're leaving soon," Godric said, sitting across from me.

"Yes, we have to." I replied.

"Not really," he countered. "Me, Lia, you, and Sookie, we have sinned. There is blood on our hands but it is because the world struck first. We deserve our peace and if we sacrifice it, it shouldn't be for a world that does not deserve it."

Godric was right in a sense. The last time Godric and Amelia ventured outside Americ they found themselves in Germany, during WWII. We were warriors; we lived to battle on the fields in the muck and the blood, but Germany was not at war at least in the beginning. One group was simply set on the extermination of another. Never had he witnessed so much violence without cause. He wasn't the only one.

Many supernatural creatures had watched in horror. It simply wasn't something we did. Sure, we drank blood, some of us ate humans, you even had psychopath that murdered for shits and giggled but genocide was unheard of. After what Amelia's father had done to her, after what Freyda had done to me, that glimpse of the depths of human malevolence was too great. It robbed Godric of the faith he had in the outside world.

The fucked up part was I couldn't blame him. I agreed with my maker entirely. In fact, the world as a whole could kiss my cold dead ass but this wasn't about the world. Sookie and I weren't in this because we wanted to be noble. We sure as hell weren't risking making our son an orphan so we could be heroes. Our motivation was selfish and simple. As long as Kai was in this world, then the world could count on Sookie and I to defend it.

"I don't give a shit about the world." I told Godric honestly. "It could burn to the ground for all I care."

"So stay, no one would ever get a chance to hurt him if he stays here. Evil would never touch him."

I nodded. "You're right, evil will never touch him but neither will what little good is out there."

I tickled my son and he chuckled, displaying dimples. Kai had ash blonde hair that didn't make his skin appear paler, rather it accentuated the translucent shimmer to him. His big round eyes were cobalt blue with a thick fringe of lashes just a few shades darker than his head of hair. He looked like his mother save the shape of my lips and nose.

"There is some left, you know. It still exists in this world but it has hidden itself deep in the shadows because it can no longer stand alone. Now it is but a flicker in the deepest dark. The good in this world, is like the last leaf clinging desperately to its branch, despite the merciless winds and bitter cold of winter." I said, looking up at him. "It's voice is a soft whisper but it speaks and it is those who have been tainted by the dark but seek the light that hear it's voice."

"Where did you hear that?" he asked.

We laughed because we both knew I didn't have a poetic bone in my body, not even the French Renaissance had changed that.

"The Old Bat," I said. "She said it to me as I awaited sentencing but she gave me the plea bargain instead." I wondered if she knew then that it would help me decide what to do now.

**~ooooo~**

A few days later, Sookie was taking a nap in the middle of the day. I placed Kai down in his crib and went for a blood. Before my meal heated, I heard him fuss in his sleep. I ignored him, assuming he would settle on his own. He didn't. His coos turned to whimpers. The noise was so soft that I didn't think anyone would hear.

I arrived in time to see Sookie's eyes snap open. With all the things that we now knew about each other, with all the things that had changed between us that hadn't. She always woke up the same way but the system we had had resulted in me not getting hit for a while. She slept a few hours after me so I woke first.

Sookie's fingers glowed. It was nothing like the soft blue strings she wrapped me in during her sparring matches. This was bright and it gave off a violent current. The instant her fingers unfurled, a flash of light engulfed the whole room, blinding me momentarily. When I opened my eyes, a hole was blasted into the wall and the destruction continued through several other doors and several other rooms.

There was nothing to worry about, except who was going to clean up this mess. Truth was, I'd never had fears about leaving Sookie and Kai to sleep in the same room. The only reason it had never happened was that he was always in someone's arms.

No matter what frame of mind Sookie was in, no matter how much of a head start her body had, I knew she would never hurt Kai. The proof of it was at the angle that her blast had been unleashed. It was high enough that it would take down anyone that was around Kai but it wouldn't hurt him. By the look on her face, I knew I was the only one that believed that.

At the jarring noise, Kai began crying in earnest. The noise was so rarely heard that Sookie snapped out of it immediately. My mate looked down at her hands. Revulsion and terror washed over her features.

I walked to my son and the instant he saw me standing over him, he quieted. It wasn't so much the noise, he just wasn't used to being set down. "You're such a pain in the ass, Katairu." I mumbled.

I picked him up and offered him to his mother. "See, he's okay." I said.

It was as if I was something from her worse nightmares. She scampered back in such panic that she fell off the bed because her feet were tangled in the sheets. Looking in her eyes, I knew that there was nothing else I could say to her. Coming closer would only make her fear worse. She stumbled out of the room and I could do was watch her go.

From that night, Sookie barely smiled and the lightness left her eyes. When she smiled or joined conversations, it was forced, like an actress following cues. What was worse? She barely touched Katairu or me. She never allowed herself to be alone with him even when she was awake. With each passing day, I felt her closing herself off to the world and me, as if I would let her.

I knew Sookie was probably thinking of leaving as to keep us safe or some other bullshit. If she wasn't ready to face her fears, it was too fucking bad. I wasn't passive enough to let her. I'd given her space but I wasn't about to let walk away. If she did, that would rip my heart out but she would have to look at me in the eyes as she did it.

Early the next morning as Sookie was having breakfast with everyone else. I didn't join them. I stood off in the corner eyes narrowed, hands folded. Five minutes of this and I saw them all begin squirming in their seats.

"I think I left the stove on," Amelia announced.

"It's right there," Godric said pointing behind her.

She rose to her feet anyway. "I left the car running."

"There are no cars—"

She grabbed her plate. "Well, I'm running for my life then!"

Then the coward scampered out of the room, leaving her mate to fend for himself. Godric didn't seem to know how to make his exit. Not that it mattered. With super hearing, there were few places that he could go to prevent hearing the conversation. Sookie rose to her feet and reached for Kai.

"Don't. Even." I said.

She froze and looked at me in confusion and more than a little hurt. That was the first time she was going to carry him and it was because she knew what was coming. I left the counter, lifted Kai from his seat and handed him to my maker. Godric eagerly took him and ghosted out of the room.

"For the record," I began calmly. "You don't want me as a stalker."

"What?"

"I know you're thinking about leaving me." I said. She hung her head in shame and guilt but didn't deny my words. "Seeing that I fucking refuse to let you go, I believe that takes me from 'Mate' to 'Stalker'."

"Eric, I'm not right."

As if I didn't already know that. I pulled out her chair then sat beside her. "Tell what you see when you sleep," If it sounded like an order, it was.

At the mere mention, she flinched. I pulled her out of her seat and sat her astride me. She clung on and buried her face in my chest. I wasn't angry with her not really, I was pissed that I didn't know how to help her and I wanted to, so bad.

"You can keep torturing yourself or you can try to let me help you. It hurts to see you so broken up after every time you hit me. It hurts knowing that you can't control it but you desperately want to."

"You would think it's all the blood I'd spilled," she said in a frightened voice that was nothing like her. "You would think I have nightmares of all the fights I've been in, all the times I've been beat to shit; half dead and in so much pain that I wanted to die."

That was exactly what I thought. "It isn't?" I asked.

"All of that would make sense and I could rationalize it but not this," she whispered. "Unlike me my parents took their chances with the Water Fae, away from Sin Eater sect. We moved, and moved, and always moved. I never knew we were running. I was the telepath, other than that, I never knew what I was. I was just a little girl with hippie nomadic parents who believed in teaching me about the world by exposing me to it."

She burrowed and clung tighter to me as I thought possible. She was trying not to quiver but she couldn't seem to help it. Nothing we had faced until this point had made her this terrified, not the fight with the vampires in Mexico or the Sin Eaters had reduced her to this.

"I was five when they were killed," she told me. "We were in Tulsa. I was learning about, Carpobrotus edulis, and the highway ice plant. Afterward we had a barbecue and danced by the fire and a raccoon stole my hot dog."

I chuckled softly and distraught as she was I felt her face crease into a smile. "My dad was setting me up in the hammock where I liked to sleep. He was about to pull the blanket over me but then he turned to stone. The look in his eyes was like nothing I'd ever seen. He wasn't my dad anymore."

He hadn't been her father any more than she had been my lover every time she rose in such panic.

"Before I could ask, he pushed both of his palms on the middle of my chest so hard that for a second I couldn't breathe."

Her fists were full my shirt but I only held her tighter knowing she needed it.

"After he did that I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, and I looked down at my nose and it was invisible. I knew that no one else could see me. 'It's a just stick of gum.' He told me 'It's just a stick of gum and after a hundred chews the flavor is done'."

I just assumed there was no basis for it. It was just something meaningless for her to focus on in order to combat anxiety. It was more than that. It was the last thing she ever heard her father say.

"Hush," I murmured into her hair. "It's alright. You're alright."

I would take her hitting me every night until the end of forever if it would spare her this pain. I wanted her to stop talking. The voice in my head that was so in tune with her was screaming at me that this was too much, too soon. I held her tighter against me. Regardless of what I thought would help her heal, I couldn't deal with her in so much pain.

She shook her head and fought her tears as she continued, "No Eric, I'm not. I haven't been for so long."

It hurt to watch her hurt like this but I said nothing as she continued. "My mom died just outside the cabin door. My dad died inches from me. He faced it with a smile on his face."

I held her tighter against me. It might have been to the point of pain but it was what she needed to pull her from a pain-filled past into our present.

"I wanted to scream so bad but I couldn't. I felt my powers flare for the first time. I wanted to fight…I wanted to do something, anything. Then Niall came, he said it looked like vampires had killed my parents and that is why half-breeds can't be safe anywhere but with him. He said he would teach me how to fight so no one could hurt me anymore."

"Your parents weren't wrong for running and you weren't wrong for wanting to survive." I told her.

She shook her head. "I was. I knew something wasn't right but I stayed. Niall said it looked like vampires had killed my parents but it wasn't it couldn't be. I just didn't know it until a few years later when I came across a vampire. That signature and the one I heard weren't the same but I stayed anyway. I stayed."

"Po-ta-to, Po-Ta-to," I said with a shrug. "You were a child and you didn't want to die."

"I never told anyone but Preston."

At the mention of the name, I couldn't help the tension that crept into my body. I still wanted to kill him.

"That's why I love him. It's why I can't let you kill him. I told him what I felt was true. He wouldn't admit it, but then he hugged me and I heard his thoughts, 'This is wrong. We are wrong, but there is no way to make it right'"

Damn. I really wouldn't get to kill that douche; not now. not knowing what I knew. Their love had been that of siblings. They had lived together and he had probably been her only friend when she had no other in the entire world. She would always love him and I was going to have to deal with that. It annoyed the hell out of me but I understood.

"It's a cage," she continued. "I can't move, I can barely breathe. I'm screaming and no one can hear me. That's what it was like that night, and when I sleep I go right back to the hold that left me helpless and unable to save my parents." For the first time she embarked on her tale. Her posture eased and she looked up at me. "I couldn't fight then so when I wake up, it's all my body wants to do." Tears escaped her eyes. "That's what's wrong with me that's why I have to leave. I could have killed him, Eric." She whispered, as if she was confessing her deepest sin.

Her voice was laced with so much agony that I wondered how she remained in one piece.

"I believed that if no one else was safe from me, then Kai was. I have never wanted anything the way I wanted him, not ever. To hurt him, to—" her voice broke as she cried. "I could have killed him...I could have killed my baby."

I wiped the streams of tears running down her pretty face. Then I softly smacked her upside her head.

"That should hold you for a bit, because I'm starting to think all this God Killer business is going to your head." I said, honestly. "I swear. I swear to you, I'll kill you myself the instant I even suspect you're a danger to Kai."

She gave me smile that was filled with both sadness and relief. "You promise?" she asked.

I held her tighter. "Yes Lover, I promise."

Did I think she was now magically free from her past? No, I didn't. This was a step in the right direction though. Was I still liable to be punched in the face? I most certainly was. I was willing to risk that every day for as long as it took. I needed her to see what I saw, that her past had nothing on her future.

That night Sookie slept in our bed when she began to wake, I did nothing. Her body tensed and I still I did nothing, I didn't talk, and I didn't trace the mark on her back. Before my mate's eyes snapped open, I closed mine. I felt her body pull away from mine and danger was in the air but I didn't move. I did absolutely nothing.

I waited for pain but nothing happened. One of my eyes opened and Sookie was over me with her hand cocked back, ready to punch me into tomorrow morning. The look on her face was equal parts shock and alarm.

"I was going to hit you," she told me.

I shrugged. "I'm kinky," I said. "I get off on that kind of thing."

She chuckled, but she leaned in to kiss me. "You're a sick vampire, Eric Northman," she murmured, nipping at my earlobe.

I wound my arms around her, holding her closer to me. "And you, my crazy lover, complete me."

Saying sex was always on my mind was an understatement. I'd just grown to a place where I could prioritize my urges and her needs. I didn't think she wanted sex so it wasn't at the forefront of my mind. We pulled apart but she ran her fingers through my hair and tucked it behind my ear. She looked down at me, and I couldn't say what she needed though I knew she needed something, but the expression on her face was serene.

"Hiya handsome," she greeted, caressing my face with the back of her hands. I was already leaning into the contact before she touched me, knowing where she would touch me and how.

I smiled and kissed her palm. "Hello Lover,"

Sookie traced the planes of my chest, though her touch was feather light it reached deeper than anything else ever could. She kissed her way up my chest, and by the time she reached my lips that familiar ache for her was teeming through me. The passion between us never faded, no matter what we were doing or feeling. Sometimes when we made love, it burned like a roaring flame propelling us into one entity so fast it hurt. Other times, it glowed softly like coals, slowly, sensually, melting our souls together. The bonding marks sent a glow through me that was beyond pleasure, beyond a sense of wholeness, and beyond love.

Tonight was one of those nights when the fire burned slowly. It was just us in the house, in the world, and the universe. Everything was reduced to the rhythm of her hips, the whispered words that tumbled from my lips, and the look of utter bliss we saw in each others eyes.

Sookie straddled me as our kiss deepened and she impaled herself on my manhood in one fluid motion. She shuddered and I groaned in delight. Being inside her, while we were eye to eye, seemed to transcend everything else. Every time we came together like this, it still managed to leave me in awe. The way she looked at me was like I was the only man in the world, the look of love and adoration spoke of something more. I didn't have to be the only man in the world. I was the only man for her.

Sookie was on top of me as our kiss heated my hands began roaming her body. What I desired was more and I hadn't any idea what. I just knew that only she could give it. My hands reached under her shirt and she groaned as if it pained her to part with my lips even for a second. I bit back a moan.

My mate gripped my throbbing erection in her hand and rubbed it against her core. She was so very wet and warm. Her touch wasn't demanding, it didn't make me frantic; it roused an entirely different part of me. A part that was new, a part that was all hers.

We've fucked to the point that neither of us could move. She and I have had sex. We've made love, but I knew this was different. When Sookie sheathed me between her slick folds, I had it. That thing I needed and couldn't identify, I had found it. In her eyes, I knew that was what she had needed and we had both found it. This went deeper than my body inside hers. It went deeper than our love.

I felt the mark on my shoulder move. It wasn't the creeping sensation that came with my mate being in need. It was like a caress circling the mating marks. I didn't know how I knew but I could feel the bond ascending to it final step. Unlike the initial bonding, I could feel we had a choice and I wanted her to have it, though my mind was made up. Not that it really mattered whether our tattoos proved us to be 'Lovers Eternal' or not, she would never be rid of me.

"We could stop," I murmured. "If you want to, I can wait."

She gave me that smile that said so many things but mostly it told me to shut up. I smiled and pulled her against me as she continued to ride me, nice and slowly as if we had forever. My hands gripped her hips and I ground her harder, taking myself deeper. We both groaned. I've had more than my share of pleasure with her.

It was like feeling her pleasure and mine. One fed off the other and the passion only grew. I was losing myself to her. This was beyond mental, emotional, and so very physical. It was a tangible sensation that traveled from the base of my skull and down my back. It felt so foreign, so right, and so good. It continued its devastating trip until I felt her in every inch of me. I shivered from pleasure and from the odd feeling of warmth that was shooting through me. I didn't pull away. I didn't fight it.

Sookie gasped and her eyes went wide. I didn't have to ask her if she was in pain. I knew she wasn't. I knew she was feeling what I was. I was being overtaken by the warmth of her body, she was being engulfed by the cool contact of mine. I rubbed my cheek against her to share the warmth she had lost. Our fingers entwined and I rested more of my weight against her. We were eye to eye, our bodies rising and arching and rolling as one.

I truly didn't know where Sookie ended and I began. It felt like I was being pulled out of my body but I wanted to fall. I surrendered. It was then I felt it. Despite not having a need to draw breath, I gasped as the feel of the mating brand registered; the mark on my back, chilled despite the warmth was surging through my body.

It was the sun and the dark. It was pleasure and pain. I was her and she was me. All the extremes crashed over me, us, and we were lost. I didn't register my release, just the powerful force in which it left my body. I felt Sookie's nails on my back and the timbre of her cries of ecstasy in my ear.

My mate was baring most of my weight but she didn't mind. I knew she didn't. There was nothing more she wanted than to have me right where I was. Sookie kept me cradled between her legs and she ran her fingers through my hair. Her fingers walked a trail down my back and circled the tattoo on my shoulder.

"The tree is right side up," she murmured. "Lovers Eternal,"

I pulled away and she bared her shoulder to me. Sure enough, the tree was a slightly brighter blue and it was right side up.

"You're so screwed," I replied. "You're stuck with this asshole forever."

She laughed and punched my arm.


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: You all have no idea how much I have missed you, seriously like flowers and chocolates and great big hugs and kisses. Life has been kicking my hiney. This is the only thing that not only keeps my spirits up back keeps me sane. **

* * *

** Chapter 21**

**Back To Reality**

Sookie's fear as she slept didn't fade overnight but by the time Kai was six months old, she could fall asleep with him on her chest without fear. When my son reached that half a year mark we had a party. It was more for us than for him. As children should be, he was oblivious to the dangers that dogged him.

We all understood what lay ahead. When he fell asleep, the mood changed and that last bit of joy and lightness was washed away. Sookie and I retrieved the bags we had used on our journey here, and just touching them felt wrong. It was as if we were being pulled into a past we no longer remembered and a reality we no longer recognized. In a way, it was so true. For the first time in over a year, Sookie and I would be returning to the real world.

In a surprising turn of events, Godric and Amelia were geared to leave with us the next morning. Both of them had disowned the outside world long ago. Amelia's father had tried to trade her soul for immortality. Godric was wrought with guilt that he had forsaken me. They were kindred spirits. They had met when life had nothing to offer them but despair. Amelia had helped my maker see beyond his pain and urge to end it all. He had showed her that someone wanted her and not needed her. They created Americ for themselves so nothing else could hurt them. They were risking it to save a world they had long ago lost faith in. I knew they were coming solely because they knew we needed every friend we had.

As they prepared to leave, winter came for the first time in the history of Americ. Instead of seeing the beauty of icicles and full beds of snow all I felt was cold. The waterfall was frozen, as was the pond. All the trees had lost every leaf and flower beds were brown. The bare branches were covered in snow, as was the ground from the porch to every corner of this manmade universe. The enchanted birds weren't singing as Amelia cooked, cleaned, or just annoyed the shit out of me.

Kai was nestled snugly in a sling across Amelia's chest. Sookie could teleport them, but she wasn't sure Kai was old enough. Instead, Amelia and Godric would be escorting him through the emergency portal in the attic. Sookie and I watched them go silently. We didn't tell Kai goodbye. This wasn't goodbye. It was see you later, not only to Kai but to Amelia and Godric too. They would be going directly into the heart of Pam's territory. We would meet them as soon as we could, Sookie sooner than I. I was going to jail for a spell.

The house was quiet and the silence was deafening. Sookie and I did one more walk through looking for anything Kai would need that might have been forgotten. I found myself in the room that I had shared with my mate and child. I looked at Kai's empty crib. This small space was filled with so much love and so many happy memories. To compare it to the entire world was like comparing a spark to a roaring flame. There was nothing I wouldn't give to hang onto this piece of heaven.

I didn't hear her but I felt her arms wrap around my waist from behind and her face nuzzled my back. We didn't speak. She just held me until I closed the door on what had been the happiest place either of us had ever known.

"We'll be back here soon enough," she said, kissing the palm of my hand. "You'll be pissing off your stepmother, Kai will be laughing as Godric pokes and sniffs him, and I'll be watching with a smile."

I nodded because while I wasn't sure, and while I was hurting, I believed her. Her faith would have to be enough because nothing else was acceptable. I turned around she wrapped her arms around me. I held her just as tightly as she held me. Suddenly the, sensation of being pulled away by a gust of wind over took me. I couldn't explain it. It was as if there was a storm in the core of who I was. It was pulling me in away from here and into an entirely other place. When I had settled I looked around and saw the familiar woodland of Minnesota. We landed just outside the forests that surrounded the mansion of the Pythoness.

"You sure I can't come with?" Sookie asked anxiously. "I'd stay in the bushes. You wouldn't even know I was there."

I stared at her for a long minute after which we both burst out laughing. She just didn't have a way with words. "That came out a tad more stalker-like than I intended," she admitted.

I pulled her into my arms and rested my chin on her head. No matter how many times I told her to, she just couldn't let me go into a mildly dangerous situation without her. I knew if the tables were turned, I would be the exact same way. If I knew nothing else, I knew the Old Bat wanted to keep me as her Enforcer. She wouldn't even do the favor of a suspension. She was too cruel for that.

"I'll get arrested, processed, get an arraignment hearing, and then post my ridiculous bail. I will get three phone calls after that and I'll use all of them on you."

She nodded. Our eyes met and I leaned down to kiss her. It was as electrifying as it was comforting, but light as it was, it evoked all the passion our relationship carried. Reluctantly, Sookie let me go. I felt her eyes on me as strongly as a caress as I walked away. The instant I knocked on the guard's post, she disappeared. I didn't see it. I just felt it as the miles separated us. This would be the first time since she came back to me that the moon would rise and fall but we would be apart. .

Surprisingly, there was a lengthy waiting list of vampires looking to enlist in the Enforcers Guild. How's that for irony? All I wanted to do was quit. Service was a way for vampires to be safe. They served the Pythoness, wore her colors, and upheld her laws. In return, they were untouchable to anyone who didn't want a room in the Catacombs. Some might see their shields as a way to gain power and immunity from punishment. Why anyone would think that was beyond me. Your boss was psychic.

The punishment the Pythoness dished out for her Enforcers was something out of the devil's recipe book. In the dungeons of her court, there was a room that had to have its walls rebuilt with every Enforcer that violated their oath. He or she was chained to the ceiling and at dawn, a small hole was etched into the wall. With every day that passed, the hole got bigger causing the vampire to burn slowly. Your length of service determined how long you suffered. The longer your service, the longer you took to burn to ash.

There were a variety of reasons why vampires enlisted. The main one was that their maker was gone for one reason or another and they were too young to stand alone. The other recruits were vampires whose kings or queens had fallen and there was a mark on their back, so service was a great choice. A few like me were guilty of crimes and were given amnesty in exchange for service. The most prevalent reason was makers abandoning their children.

Vampires created fledglings for two reasons: The first was from loneliness; the other was that they thought the child would be mighty and of great use . Sometimes the ones who were seeking power miscalculated. Instead of a warrior, they were landed with a weakling, so they abjured and abandoned them. It would have been more pragmatic to put the child out of their misery but there was something in the blood that wouldn't readily allow the choice. Making a child was an intimate thing, and much like with humans and their children, not all parents were good parents. With vampires there was something in the exchange of blood that didn't allow them to commit infanticide. I supposed it would be similar to keeping a leg that was useless but existent or amputating it entirely.

I came upon the tall black gates that surrounded the mansion of the Old Bat. The vampire manning the entry way was young, as if there still may be dirt behind his ears young. In fact, he barely read as vampire. Where it not for his uniform and lack of a pulse I would have thought him to be a human with a large amount of vampire blood in his system. I processed all that information about him before he registered my presence. When his eyes caught mine, he did a double take and then he went still.

"Look," I told him. "I'm here to turn myself in."

I slid my wrists through the slot that was meant to exchange identification. He didn't move. You would think I was the big bad wolf, looking to huff and puff and blow his house down. All I was trying to do was be arrested. "Moonlight's burning," I urged. "So anytime now."

He moved as fast as he could to cuff me in the event I was trying to trick him. I saw the move coming with enough time to deflect it ten times over. I didn't. The cuffs weren't harmful nor were they breakable. They were silver lined with lead. They would also do nothing to restrain me.

"My spec sheet clearly states that I can fly," I reminded him. His eyes went wide and he typed on the computer to verify what I said and looked at me, panicked. We both stared at each other for a long minute, until he finally spoke.

"What should I do?" he asked.

I sighed. "Bind me in enough silver to weigh me down," I advised.

He nodded and looked around the tiny area for what he needed. It took him five minutes and I was texting Sookie about how hard a time I was having trying to be arrested. It wasn't just to make her feel better, this shit was funny. It would have been easier if I'd just shown up in chains.

"Got it!" he said finally. Then he looked at me up and then down at the chain. "Where do they go? I'm not trained for field duty."

You think? I thought to myself.

"Uncuff me," I said.

He did, and I was able to throw the heavy length of chain over my shoulders. It was then that he was comfortable enough to come out from behind the gate. He finished winding the chain around me but he kept staring at me.

"That's all, so unless you're going to kiss me, stop staring!"

He smiled. "I was hoping we could fight." he said with a shrug. "It's my first day out and it would be great if I fought a rogue S7 Enforcer, not to mention 'The Viking.' I heard what you did to the four teams of S4s who caught up with you in Cali."

It was probably entirely insane but I laughed. There was something about him that I liked. There was an air of eagerness to him that explained how he got himself assigned here despite his lack of training. Therefore, I refrained from giving him a hard time, which by the way was an affront to my personal philosophy. He was happy and enthusiastic about his job. I suppose I found it interesting because I was so far on the other side of the spectrum.

"Sure," I said. "But you realize that I have to hurt you a lot worse to make it believable."

He grinned from ear to ear. "Awesome!"

At least he was invested in the idea. I had to respect that, but this was going to count as my good deed for the decade. If by some miracle I could help save the world, I wouldn't so much as hold the door for the person behind me.

"First, you'll need to call my other half so she doesn't worry."

He reached into my pocket and found the name that said 'Other Half' and dialed. "Hi, my name is Camden. I'm a guard at the Enforcer House in Minnesota."

"Is Eric alright?" she asked.

"Fine, Lover," I called.

"Anyways, he said we could fight…"

There was a pause and then Sookie cursed so furiously I barely made out the insults.

"I said he could," I interrupted when the tirade had ended.

There was another pause. "I get that whips and chains excite you but this shit is kinky, Eric, even for you."

I laughed. "He's new. It would help him go a long way."

There was a sigh, but it was amused and less concerned. "You're a sick vampire, Eric Northman, you know that?"

"And you, my crazy lover, complete me," I said laughing.

Sookie got off the phone, then it was just me and the young vampire. He didn't seem to know how to begin the fight he'd signed up for. "It would be more realistic if it looks like you had to wrestle the chains on but not all the way. You should also smash your radio and shout for help instead."

He nodded. "Right, that's a good idea," he said stomping on the device.

I kicked his ass. If I was being fair, he wasn't that bad a fighter or weak; he had raw skill, but he was seriously outclassed. By the time help arrived he was bloody and broken, but I let him get a quarter of the chain around my neck. The reinforcements came and I didn't resist though it didn't keep them from using excessive force.

I was thrown in a cell in the dungeons of the mansion. I knew the place well. It was often where I went to hide from the Pythoness when she wanted to punish me with meetings and paperwork. A vampire could only take so much torture. The lead coated chains weren't removed despite the fact that I was behind silver bars. You dismantle a few master vampires and they treat you like Dracula.

"Looks like the Golden Boy has lost his crown,"

The voice was female and the tone was gloating. It was also very unfamiliar. This could be anyone. I'd been pissing off Enforcers and the world in general for so long, from George Washington to Queen Elizabeth II, I was unable to hazard a guess..

"If this is going to a lengthy anecdote, I think it's fair to inform you that I have a short attention span."

"Always so funny, always so perfect, always so clever, but you have finally pushed too far."

I saw the speaker but she wasn't at all familiar. She was a mixture of races. Her skin was caramel; her features were stark, but soft. Her hair was braided into neat rows and her eyes were green. I said nothing as she came to stand in front of my cell. With every second that passed, her rage grew. Therefore, I should definitely know her. Yet, I had no fucking clue who she was.

"I'll be chipping the holes into the sunroom while you're in it," she hissed. "That would jog your memory."

I stared at her blankly. Her scent didn't pique my senses so she was definitely someone I had come across before but found mundane. Seeing I'd been doing a great job of pissing her off, it would be a shame to abandon the angle. It was also what I was great at.

"I don't suppose I get to buy a vowel," I ventured.

"You are going to burn for this!" she snarled, with fangs exposed.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't fuck you," I said. "There's a bug burrowed so deep up your ass that I doubt any man would fit."

Her keys were in her hand and she had it the gate before she realized who awaited her. Chained or not, I would break her neck if she walked in here alone. She remembered it too before she made the mistake. Damn, I really would have liked adding the humiliation of being beat to shit by a bound prisoner to her list of issues.

"I headed cleanup after you murdered half that village two hundred years ago. I arrested you and brought in just so you could skate on your charges. Then I am partnered with you. Do you have any idea how insulting that was for an Enforcer of my caliber?"

"By your anger issues, I'm guessing very," I quipped. "Especially because I skipped the Academy and you probably got sent back after I ditched your overenthusiastic ass."

That was the last straw. She was inside my cell with a silver baton in her gloved hands. I let her land the first blow. Then I head butted her in the face so hard that her head was introduced to her spinal column. Within the same instant, I kicked her in the face and sent her flying out of my cell. I was polite enough to coax the gate shut with my booted foot. And people said I was a degenerate brute! Unbelievable!

Catching the scent of blood, three other guards came down. They looked into the cell where I stood behind silver bars, and then down at the unconscious vampire. Knowing I was guilty and figuring out how I accomplished it were two different things. In the end, they carried her out and no one returned.

In the interim, I was thinking about Kai. I wondered if my son had initiated my sister into the club of his favorite people by spitting up on her. Pam's reaction was enough to have me laughing to myself. I wondered who was watching Kai tonight because for once it wasn't me. I wondered if he noticed my absence. I wondered what he was wearing, what he had eaten, and if he was asleep yet.

My mind moved to Sookie. I knew she was trying to comfort me and wanted me calm. I was trying to do the same so we just ended up annoying the shit out of each other. That was the only comfort either of us needed. My daydreams were interrupted when my docket number was called. I was led into the courtroom by a dozen guards. It was overkill in my opinion, but no one asked.

The Ancient Pythoness sat behind her raised bench. Her expression was severe. It took everything I had not to roll my eyes.

"Eric Northman, you are being charged with the following crimes," the head scribe read. The piece of parchment she had fell to her waist. "Desertion from the Guild of the Enforcers, violating the law of the Pythoness…" It went on and on. She listed every Enforcer I had injured during my time on the run. It was a long list. It even involved the vampire at the gate.

"You have disgraced the Guild of Enforcers," the Old Bat said.

Finally, I thought. I'd been trying to do that for ages now.

"You are immediately stripped of you title and your rank. Your bail has been set at five hundred thousand. Can you provide that amount?"

I nodded. "Yes, and I ask to be released on my own recognizance. I surrendered with the intent to throw myself upon the mercy of the court."

"No, lest you disappear into the wind for another year. You have broken an oath and cannot be trusted." she said blandly. "You will pay your bail after which you will be granted due process and remanded to my hospitality until your trial, whenever that may be. Next case."

I rolled my eyes internally. The Old Bat was really laying it on thick.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: If I got into detail about what's been eating me, there would be no chapter to read. I hate that I have kept such great pace with this fic and now the best I can promise is sporadic updates. I can't really apologize, it's out of my control. Okay...I'm done forcefully crying on your shoulders. :D Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 22**

**Marry You**

I wasn't sent to the dungeon but I wasn't far from it. I was escorted into a small room that I could barely stand in. It was light tight and had a bed. The door was solid silver and the guards still wanted to put handcuffs on.

"Justice my cold dead ass, this is sadistic," I sighed, as if utterly dismayed. "How's a guy supposed to jerk off?"

Half the guards laughed, while the others were stone faced. I didn't resist as my hands were bound behind my back. The faster they left, the sooner I would get my phone call. Once they had gone, a scribe came down to advise me of my right of "Virtute Officii." I had three inalienable rights while I awaited trial, not even the Pythoness could take them from me, or any accused no matter how severe their crime. The first was safety from the sun. The second was sustenance. Last were three phone calls or letters that were granted at three separate occasions and were of unspecified length.

"Your trial has been scheduled for two weeks from today," she told me and then handed me the phone and left. I called Sookie. I'd be damned if I'd spend the calls thinking about my fake trial, so we didn't talk about what I was facing or what lay ahead. Our conversation was about what she had been doing and about Kai. I loved that most about her. She knew when I wanted to face my troubles and when I wanted nothing more than to forget them. It wasn't until a half hour before dawn when the scribe returned for the phone.

The first few days were torture. I had a feeling that the Old Bat was doing her best to make it look good, appearance sake. My blood was cold and the brand was 'Red Stuff', not even 'Tru Blood'. Due to my extreme threat level, I was remanded to my room. I could sit still for years at time if it was what I needed. That wasn't the hardest part. I missed my son. I missed my mate. I was trying to space out my phone calls so I could call every few days until my trial.

A week and a half later, I heard someone approaching my cell. That usually marked one of my three meals a night. I was more than surprised when the door opened and closed quickly, at least as quickly as he was capable. It was the vampire from the gate, Camden. He pulled a six pack of Royal Blended from under his jacket.

"They threw me party to celebrate my stupidity, my valor, and sheer dumb good luck. I got this and a star, so thanks." he said, handing me the beverages. Two of them were warm and the others were almost frozen so they would keep until tomorrow.

"Anytime you want an ass kicking, just ask," I said dryly.

He grinned and scurried out of the room. I called Sookie for the last time two days before my trial and I knew she was hanging on by a thread. The only reason she hadn't yet come was because everyone she would trust our son with was refusing to watch Kai while she came to spring me.

Finally, the night of my trial arrived. My cell door opened and in the doorway was my ex-wife, Freyda. Everything else until this point had been punishment enough; this was just plain overkill.

I looked into the face that I had once found so beautiful, a face that I had loved. The memory of that past often brought raw emotion to the surface. I realized the only reason I couldn't see what she was back then was because I had been just as shallow. She had been a princess and despite my cover as rogue, she had desired me and risked everything to be with me. I waited for anger, pain, or shame, but there was none. There was nothing. The thought put a smile on my face and she, of course, misinterpreted it because in her mind, nothing could make me as happy as she had.

"I tried to pay your fine and your bail," she said.

I looked down at the watch I wasn't wearing. "It's only two hundred years late, but thanks anyway."

She ignored my jab. "I have brought you a lawyer. He has been reviewing the charges against you and he is confident he could have you released with a large fine."

I walked towards the door and looked over her head. Of course, she had paid the guards to leave us alone. If this made me late for my hearing, I was really going to be pissed.

"I have grown and I regret many things," her eyes were downcast. "I saw this as a chance to make amends. I have never forgotten what you did for me. I reward loyalty. I will offer you power, wealth, territory, and a place at my side. We can be allies, you and I."

"Your lawyer can go to hell and you can suck sunlight," I said, moving her aside and exiting my cell. "Or don't, I don't care. Just get out of my way."

"I am here to help you," she said, keeping up with me effortlessly.

"You want to help yourself, I get that, even if you don't. I'm not interested in helping you," I replied, distracted. I was only paying the conversation a minimal amount of attention. There were more than a few gates that I had to mangle to get out of the dungeons.

Having this back and forth with Freyda was easier than I thought it would be. Then I realized I hadn't thought of her in so long that I never realized how much my feelings had evolved. I was in a place where the anger was gone and so was the hurt. Truly, I never thought the damage she had done to me could feel so miniscule. Yet, she was now like anyone else I passed in the street. I would be a smartass because it was ingrained in me, but I didn't care if she lived or died. I was totally indifferent to Freyda.

I walked up the winding staircases. When I entered the ground floor, all the guards froze. Then they assumed attack positions. I wasn't in the mood. If they were going to take bribes then they shouldn't try to get noble with me. In addition, I didn't want my clothes wrinkled.

"Anybody touches me," I said softly, "I'll butt fuck them with a silver blade." I walked on and they let me. It might have been my threat or the fact that I was heading for the courtroom that made them stand down.

A queen she might be, but Freyda had no right to the proceedings. Criminal case proceedings were entirely different from the civil litigations that a royal normally attended. They lasted about a half hour, lacked all the spectacle of royal bickering, and had a lot less paperwork. When I opened the door, Freyda had to remain outside. The only people in the courtroom were my accusers and the others who were waiting to carry out my sentence. It wouldn't have helped my case if they were still sporting the holes I'd punched thorough them. Next to them stood a slighter battered Camden and the female Enforcer I'd fought in my cell, but whose name I didn't know.

If anyone thought it was odd that I was unescorted, they didn't show it. I marched myself into the defendant box. Of course, it was silver. The acrid scent of it had been my companion for the past two weeks. My charges were repeated by the head scribe.

"Do you have any evidence to refute these allegations?" The Pythoness asked.

The first time I had broken it was when I chose to go with Sookie instead of coming in with her. That wasn't the serious crime, I was looking at a fine. Desertion, however; was a whole other issue. Luckily for me I hadn't deserted, I was on vacation and my paperwork had just gotten lost in the mail; Pam made damn sure of it, the thing had more stamps than a collection.

The reason I knew the law so well was because I got off on bending it without breaking it. Everyone thought the Pythoness let me get away with minor infractions. The Old Bat didn't let me get away with shit. She was The Law. I had no doubt that no matter how much she valued me, she would subject me to the full extent of the law.

"I did not defect. I had given my word, and in thousand years no one can say I have ever betrayed it," I began. "A call from an investigator is how my cases are assigned because of my S7 Grade. The last one I received I responded to. I couldn't take the case per the guidelines of my position. There was a conflict of interest. The target was my lover."

"Who is the investigator?" The Pythoness asked. "Let him come forth."

Bill was here and he testified to what I said. "Was that the last assignment you had for him?" he was asked after his anecdote.

"No," Bill said, consulting a notebook. "Since last contact, there have been fifteen cases that have been escalated to his pay grade."

"Did you contact him to assign said cases?" The Pythoness asked.

He nodded. "I attempted to do so," he said.

I could yawn as he proceeded to break down all the calls he had made to me and how my phone had been disconnected. He had all the letters he had sent and how they had come back to him stating, 'Return to Sender'. Then he received the letter later that told him where I was, courtesy of my sister. If Bill didn't enjoy hearing himself talk so much we would have been done already.

It really didn't matter where I was. All that mattered was that I sent a message. Getting my assignments to me was his responsibility. That right there was the defining factor in being a defector versus being a bad employee. I was a bad employee, an underachiever, but I valued my word, and the Old Bat had it.

"In regard to attacking other Enforcers what evidence do you have to prove innocence?" she continued.

"Again, I had not been notified of my cases and so I was not notified of the warrant that bore my name. None of the Enforcers had identified themselves and wore plain clothes. They attacked, I retaliated. When I learned of my status, I immediately turned myself in. Yet again, the guard at the gate attacked and again I acted in self-defense."

"Anything more before I issue my verdict?" The Old Bat asked.

"Yes," I said. "These accusations are based upon flimsy circumstantial evidence and a grave misunderstanding. I have facts. I have never failed in any cases I have been assigned in two hundred years. I have upheld my duty. I have shed blood to uphold vampire law. I sit here before you willingly submitting myself to those same laws in the hope I may one day be given the honor of upholding them once more."

I spoke many languages but none of them could let a person bullshit their way through a conversation like the English language. If I had any doubts, which I hadn't, the look on the face of the scribes assured me I was going to get off scot-free.

"Eric Northman, I find you to have very little regard for manners and etiquette. Your attitude is vulgar and your disposition is appalling."

She knew my personality so well. All she had to do was call me an asshole and she would win my heart. "However," she continued. "These are character flaws, not crimes. It affronts my personal beliefs but the law is the law and it compels me to find you innocent of all listed charges."

"Thank you," I said, rising to my feet.

I thought that was it but it wasn't. I might be free but I wasn't unscathed.

"Your bail will be forfeit, it will go to cover the expense for your search as unnecessary as it might have been. I will fine you a quarter century salary as recompense to the Enforcers that suffered injuries at your hands."

Then she looked to the nine Enforcers that were seated in the bench. "My Law Guardians," the Old Bat asked somberly. "Is this acceptable? Or do you desire more for the blood offense?"

It was a very easy choice. They all nodded in accord. I supposed The Pythoness was making an example out of me. It was a pretty fucking expensive example. There was no way I'd kicked their asses hard enough that it should cost me several million apiece. None of them had lost a limb at my hands. I had made them safe during the day. Once we reached the accord, a scribe handed them the proper paper work and they signed off.

The papers that held my payment and sentence was before me when the female Enforcer spoke. "I contest," she said. Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy after all. Nothing was.

"Speak, Felicia," The Pythoness said. "What crimes has Eric committed against you? Let them be known."

"Not against me," she said with a deep nod. "He has committed many offenses against the law and the oath he has taken. He manipulated those same laws and those same oaths. He does not deserve leniency, in fact I believe he is making a mockery of the court."

This broad wasn't going to let that loss go. I looked over my shoulder and shot her a dismissive smile and she scowled at me. She was a lot more fun that Bill Compton. She fell for the blatant taunts. .

"Despite her testimony, I ask the court to consider that I have committed no offense against her." I stated baldly. "I harmed nine Enforcers, eight in California and one at the estate here. I fail to see her place in the proceedings."

The Pythoness pretended to need to have my charges reread to her to make sure it didn't include the officer. The only way she could contradict me was if she admitted to violating my due process. It might get me sent to The Catacombs but she would be right there with me and her sentence would be much longer. If she had just kept quiet she would been paid. Such as it was, she lost her payday and her vendetta.

"There is wisdom to your words Felicia," the Ancient One said, drumming her fingers. "Eric, you will apologize to the court, and to your brothers and sisters in arms."

I faced the Old Bat and nodded my head deeply for what had to be the first time. I knew she got a secret laugh out of it because we both knew that shit wasn't going to happen again, at least not this millennium. Then I faced the Enforcers I had injured.

"Sorry." It somehow came out as derisive and somber at the same time. It was probably because I was having a hard time not laughing.

"As moving and sincere as your apology was," she said, "I will fine you another twenty-five year's wages. If you cannot afford this you will be placed on a probationary period not to exceed fifty years."

Despite the great reveal and the many markets that now accommodated vampires, I preferred to live like the old days. Call me old fashioned but feeding off the hoof and going to ground appealed to me more than Tru Blood and an Anubis flight. I didn't have expensive taste despite the cars I used for work. Therefore, I basically had great wealth accruing that I never touched. The Old Bat knew I could pay.

"I will pay the additional fine to avoid probation," I said. I was very sure to sound aggrieved about it.

"Is there anything further against the accused?" she asked.

With the exception of Felicia everyone had been appeased, especially the other Enforcers. They were all walking out of here several million dollars richer. They could not care less what my punishment was. We all knew it and so, with that fact in mind, my sentencing was decreed.

"You are free to go, Eric Northman. You will return to work immediately to complete your case load."

Sigh. That was the real punishment. As I thought, the Old Bat was too cruel to suspend me.

The room emptied of all the claimants. Defendants used a separate exit. It was a walkway to say goodbye to anyone who would miss you when you were sentenced to The Catacombs or the final death. That was where Sookie, Godric, and Amelia were.

The door opened and Sookie threw herself in my arms with enough force to knock me back slightly. I didn't care. Her face was buried in the crook of my neck. Her legs wound around my waist and her hold around my neck was so tight it hurt, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I clutched her to me just as tightly.

"I love you, you asshole."

I chuckled and nipped at her ear. "I miss you calling me names." It was understood that I loved her just as much.

Finally, we pulled apart but we refused to break contact. We were eye to eye, nose to nose. Then she kissed me. It set not just my body but also my soul ablaze. Nothing had brought me this much relief or sweet pain. After being parted from her for so long, everything about her hit me harder. Her scent, the feel of her body, and the weight of her in my arms. The sensation of feeling whole washed over me.

I looked behind me where the double doors were still swinging. I marched us back into the courtroom. The Pythoness was still behind her bench, presumably awaiting the other case. It wasn't going to be a criminal case, it was going to be something else entirely.

"Is there is enough time for a wedding ceremony?" I asked when we were before her.

"Huh?" Sookie asked.

At the same time, the Pythoness waved us toward her. I moved forward. I didn't set Sookie down until we were before her.

"We're getting married." I clarified, tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. "You're dressed for the occasion."

"Whoa!" My very soon to be wife protested. "You're not even going to ask me? That's highhanded and more than a little presumptuous, don't you think?"

Americ was the only place where neither of us had been in jeans and boots. It wasn't just because she had been pregnant with Kai. It was because Americ was a place where our normal attire wasn't needed. We were free to be bare. Like that first night she had come back to me, our clothes matched not in color but in style.

Sookie was in a pair of low cut fitted light blue jeans. It did sinful things to her ass and hips. Their bottoms were slim and tucked neatly into grey combat boots. Her footwear wasn't laced all the way. Her t-shirt was white and a 'V' neck. I was in varying shades of black and dark blue. I hadn't imagined us marrying because we were mated, but I realized I wouldn't have it any other way. This was us. We were unsophisticated and downright crude but we belonged together.

I rolled my eyes. "I got the milk for free, and a calf might I add. I don't need permission to buy the cow."

Most women would have been horrified, but she laughed and kissed my chin. "You sure know how to make a woman feel special."

"I do my best," I said with a grin. Five minutes later, I had made my lover, my mate, and the mother of my child my wife.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

**Back To What You Know**

Sookie was happy. She didn't seem able to help the way she smiled at everyone as we moved around. I ignored the males who stared, but only because killing them would serve no purpose. It was still tempting. She clung to my arm as I gave her a tour of the High Court House that doubled as the Enforcer base. The only one that was impressed with the house was her.

My wife gushed over paintings and pieces of art that dated back millennia. Some sculptures were older than Godric, the Old Bat, and me combined. When I showed Sookie the library I had to drag her out of it. Then again I knew she was a bookworm deep down. Soon we had doubled back and were in the corridor by the court. Godric was making small talk with a vampire he knew from Rome.

Sookie and I were making our way over when the last person I was expecting sprang from a corner. I thought I'd made myself clear when I'd suggested she suck sunlight. Apparently not. Freyda was still intent on beating a dead horse, or perhaps she wanted my wife to beat a dead corpse?

"Eric," Freyda greeted. "I am happy that fate is your friend once more. Now a word."

I ignored her because she was clearly used to telling people what to do. I was used to ignoring orders, so it worked out. Still, I knew I had to play my hand carefully; already Sookie was tensing. My wife's eyes honed in on Freyda much like a cat who had spotted something interesting. In her mind she knew there was something that needed to be done. How extreme how that action would be was undecided.

Sookie wasn't the only one, as Godric was wearing the look that often preceded someone getting limbs ripped off. Godric was still working on his issues. Thankfully, Amelia wrapped her arms around his waist to both restrain and comfort. Even she was wearing a look of vast disdain,

"I'd rather not," I said, throwing my arm around Sookie's shoulders. I tried to steer us in the opposite direction. She went willingly, but then Freyda had to open her mouth.

"You would turn your back to a Queen over your human pet?" She didn't sound upset or insulted. She was amused.

That was the wrong thing to say. Sookie spun out from under my hold in a neat about face. "What did you say?" she asked while moving closer.

Freyda remained quiet, more out of shock than anything else. She had no idea how much danger she was in. Her expression was one of disbelief and more than a little amusement. I suppose Freyda always found it funny when she thought I was playing the fool. That was not the case now and she was going to find out the hard way.

"Is she unwell?" Freyda wondered, confused. "Or just poorly trained?"

"Were I you I would stop talking," I warned. "You don't want to piss her off."

"Silence your human, Eric," Freyda said in reproach. "Her presence offends her betters."

That was when Sookie lunged at her. If not for the bonding marks I wouldn't have realized her intent soon enough to restrain her. I began pulling her in the opposite direction. She was exerting all the force she could to break the hold but not hurt me. I was doing the same, Did I mention my wife was crazy and she had the temperament of a pit bull? In this moment, both were rearing their heads.

"Bitch, come over here and say that to my face. I want you to put me in my place." I didn't have to see her eyes, her tone told me all I needed to know.

"Filthy peasant," Freyda hissed. Her eyes were narrowed into emerald slits. Someone should really tell her she was out of her league. It wasn't going to be me. I might be an old man but I didn't want to die today.

"Scrawny skank," Sookie fired back. "With your narrow neck and ass I have no clue how you sit or swallow."

It was at that point that Godric lost his homicidal look and burst into a fit of laughter. Once he began, he couldn't seem to help himself. Tears escaped his eyes. More than once, he tried to compose himself but he couldn't manage it. He'd met Freyda once, and he hated her then. His dislike for her was so great that he had almost forced me to wed another vampire just to get me away from her. In the end he realized he loved me more than he hated her and it bit us both in the ass.

After all Freyda had done to me, I had begged my maker not to hurt her. He had given me his word and he had kept it. I supposed this was the first moment he wasn't regretting it. He was laughing so hard at the verbal assault Sookie was dishing out that he was in danger of laughing himself beyond the veil. At this point, Amelia had set him on the floor so he could have a grand time.

The scene had garnered the attention of several guards. "Is there a problem?" one of them asked.

I clapped my hand over my wife's mouth to keep her from spewing more venom. I didn't care what happened to Freyda, but violence in this of all places was a guaranteed ticket to the Catacombs.

"Not at all," I said with a polite smile. I squeezed my wife tighter. She got the point and her struggles slowed. "We are having a friendly disagreement, nothing more. We would never violate the most sacred law while in the home of the Pythoness."

The guard sensed the tension in the air but since we weren't breaking any laws, he moved on. Godric was still not acting his age. How could I hold it against him? When I had been facing centuries in the Catacombs he had wept. He had blamed himself for not killing Freyda so I wouldn't be paying for her crimes. He had been so heartbroken that his love for me had clouded his duty to protect me.

"You are a fleeting thing," Freyda said confidently, but she stepped back. "I will always own his heart."

"Fuck you, you dumb 'ho! I'm his wife and I'll see you outside," she retorted, deadly calm. "We're going to have us a good ole girl talk!"

"You will pay," Freyda said calmly. By the look of confidence, she really thought that was going to happen. I didn't have the heart to tell her just how wrong she was.

"Come cash my check Olive Oyl," she retorted. "I want you to."

"Lia," Godric asked, wiping the bloody tears from his eyes. "What is a 'ho and who is Olive Oyl?"

When Amelia explained the insult, he began laughing all over again. I sighed. There was something seriously wrong with my maker. I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh that he was in such hysterics or frown because he was making matters worse.

Sookie shrugged out from my hold and marched out the door. I had to tell my wife about a past I never wanted to revisit. At first, I'd been overwhelmed, then I'd been so happy that my mind never strayed to that past. I hadn't hidden it from her, I'd simply forgotten about it because it was so unimportant. I seriously hoped my wife understood. In the beginning, my intention had been to find all the similarities I could but there were none. There never had been.

Sookie loved me. The only person she put before me was Kai. She would suffer to spare me pain and I would do the same for her. For her I would do any and everything. I'd seen her at her worst and she'd seen me at mine; I wanted her and loved her still. That was the difference between love and lust. I followed behind my wife. She had made her way to the farthest point of the driveway that led to the mansion. It was beyond the boundaries of the Old Bat's courthouse.

"Not the typical wedding night," I said, leaning against a tree. "But it's so us." It really was too.

She wasn't amused. "Who is she?" she said with a fierce scowl. "I saw her and I wanted to…I hated her on sight. I don't like her and I don't why."

"She is no one now," I said honestly. "But once upon a time she was my wife."

My wife spared a second to send me a glare that would have frozen another with fear. Her pose was absolutely predatory. Her head was still down but her eyes still managed to hold me regardless of our height difference. Her face was drawn in a grimace. I knew that if I were anyone else I would be getting a firsthand introduction to the God Killer.

"You didn't tell me?" she hissed. "You should have told me."

I nodded. "I wasn't trying to hide it. She just hasn't crossed my mind."

Sookie huffed her acceptance because she knew that I didn't lie to her. "She was how you ended up an Enforcer?"

I nodded. Again, this wasn't something I hid, it was just something that no longer mattered. I don't know how it happened but at some point I actually begun to like both my job as an Enforcer and the Old Bat. Scary, but true.

"Yes," I replied. "Two hundred or so years ago, I went to visit the Scandinavian region where my human life began. It was there I met her. She was beautiful and I wanted her. She was also a princess and despite my cover as a rogue she welcomed a relationship with me."

"So what happened?"

While my wife didn't lose the homicidal look she seemed curious, not jealous. She didn't have to ask me if I had feelings for Freyda. She knew the truth, she could feel it. It was one of the things I loved about her. She knew that I wanted her and if I didn't I wouldn't be with her, mating marks or not.

"The same thing that always happens when you fall in love with love," I said. "We were lovers and when her husband was chosen, she wanted to run away with me. It was flattering; a princess was denouncing her throne for me."

My wife shot me a dirty look, "Anyway, I took a position as sheriff for the vampire king of Nevada, Felipe De Castro, to better protect and provide for her. Felipe's lieutenant Victor Madden saw me as an adversary to his uprising. I was moving up quickly and was held in high regard by the King. He wanted to take me out and he used Freyda to do it. She led me to believe that Victor forcibly turned her and ordered her to slaughter half the town. When the Pythoness came for her, I took the blame to spare her from the Catacombs."

Sookie came over and slapped me firmly upside my head. "Stupid." She muttered.

I smiled and nodded. "Yes, I was." I agreed. "I was in my cell before arraignment and Victor came with Freyda in tow. He gave her an edict to tell me the truth and she did. She wanted immortality but I was hesitant. So, she had asked her father for a husband to prompt her leaving home in the hopes of forcing my hand. Still I didn't grant it, so she found someone that would. Victor wanted me gone and in return for her help, he turned her."

"Uh-huh," she murmured to herself. "I'm definitely going to kill that bitch,"

Then she was pacing a small circle and mumbling obscenities under her breath. It was at that moment I scented Freyda and her phalanx of guards. Godric and Amelia were already hanging in the trees. If not for the gravity of the situation, I would have a million suggestions as to how Amelia could carve herself a fine broomstick from the branch she was perched on.

The only one who was more excited at the prospect of a finally dead Freyda than Godric was Sookie. I couldn't decide who hated my ex-wife more. My wife stood alone in the path of the approaching brigade. The power she gave off was so strong they didn't attempt to run her over. Freyda was trying to decide how to play her hand. The truth was there was no strategy that wouldn't result in her demise. Did she deserve it? Definitely, but I found that I still didn't care. The only thing that bothered me was the time and energy they were wasting on her. Freyda simply wasn't worth it, not even a fraction of it.

"Lover," I called to my wife.

"What?" she bit back.

It was probably the forced celibacy of incarceration, but the bite to her words made my cock throb. Heaven help me, I loved her so fucking much. I wanted to get her home as soon as with her in this mood would leave me sated for days. Well, maybe hours. That wasn't going to happen if I couldn't keep her from a fight that was beneath her.

"If you are intent on this you know I won't stop you, but I will tell you that I want my son. Once he is asleep, I want to make love to his mother," I paused and I realized I wasn't being entirely honest. "I want to have rough, mind blowing sex with my wife," I admitted.

The hostile expression melted from her features almost immediately. It was one of the things that came with being 'Lovers Eternal'. Her needs were as clear to me as my own and her wants came before mine. It was the same for her. I knew she was fighting it but she couldn't help herself. With a parting hiss of frustration she came to me.

Godric and Amelia were going to take the long way to Louisiana. Sookie teleported us there. I was expecting to see my sister's home, instead I was faced with the picture of southern country living. It wasn't small; it was quaint and surrounded by woodland. It was old-fashioned without being old if that made any kind of sense.

"So you know how you married me without asking?" Sookie began. She was rubbing the back of her neck.

"Go on" I prompted.

"I bought this house from Amelia without talking to you. She said it has been in her family since the Civil War. Next to Americ, it's the safest place."

Normally I could shrug it away but I didn't tell her about my bargain with the Pythoness. The fact that she had bought this house told me she wanted to settle here. I wasn't sure we could. Now wasn't the time. I told her a different truth but a truth all the same.

"As long as you and Kai are with me the where doesn't matter."

I entered the farmhouse and the first thing I saw was Kai. He was perched on the floor between Pam's legs. With at least some contact, he was content. He was calmly watching television with her. Her fingers were brushing his thick curly ash blonde hair from his face. With the noise of my appearance, he looked towards the door. His face broke into a grin and he was flailing his arms at me desperately.

The instant I picked him up, I threw him in the air and he spit up on me. I removed my shirt and wiped him off. "I missed you too, Katairu."

The only hello Pam gave me was her goodbye. "I missed you, you bastard," she said. How touching. On her way the door, she bumped her shoulder playfully with mine.

"I'm going to—" Sookie began.

"I know love," I kissed her lips and she walked out the door. While she had come with me knowing it was what I needed, she was still pissed because she didn't get to beat the shit out of Freyda. She needed to walk it off. I wanted to spend time with my son.

I kept Kai in my arms and I took a tour of the home. By the design, I knew the main home in Americ had been modeled after it, except that had been on a grander scale. This was the authentic version. The style spoke of a different era. The engravings on the mantle and the wall lamps were unique and they matched the trimmings on the railings of the stairs.

There were two bedrooms on the first floor and Kai's room took up the entire second floor. I entered the master bedroom and I had to laugh. It was mostly bed and not much else. On the bed was 'Pillow Eric.' He looked like he had been overused. I made a mental note to tease my wife about that later.

Knowing we might not be able to stay didn't make me want it any less. I was used to living everywhere, but now my place was with her and Kai. We belonged here. Somehow, I felt Sookie belonged in place that was so subtle in its beauty, so charming, and so profound in its feel.

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**Please no one kick and or punch me virtually. I know this kind of gaps between Fic's messes with the flow. I hate that myself but I'm serving up the goods as soon as they're hot. I'm not sure what kind of 'Mojo' you all have but it's working little by little life is slowing down one stressor at a time and I am feeling like I can wrap this Fic up this month. It's not a promise! It's willing what I want into fruition.**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: That awkward moment when you know you messed up but have no real excuse...**

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**Chapter 24**

**Promotion, My Cold Dead Ass**

I rose at first dark knowing I needed to talk to Sookie. My wife was seated at the kitchen table with a bottle of blood waiting for me. By the look on her face, I knew I shouldn't have let reason give way to passion last night. I should have told her of my bargain with the Pythoness because she had the wax sealed parchment holding the new terms of my service agreement.

Deciding it would be safest for me; I lifted Kai from his highchair and sat him on my lap. Since I had a warm blood in hand, he came eagerly. Was it cowardly of me to hide behind my infant son? Absolutely. Nevertheless, seeing his mother was a God Killer, I didn't feel spineless, just cautious. I couldn't read the expression on her face. All I knew was she had to speak first.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the world won't end, not while we're here, and not while Kai is in it," she began.

Her voice was soft, but she wasn't looking at me. It told me she was hurt, not angry.

"I bought this house because I knew we would come back. I've even discovered there are schools for supernatural children."

Tears escaped her eyes but there was a sad kind of smile on her face. Somehow, that combination was much more painful for me to bear than anything else was.

"Don't cry lover, please. I—"

She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. "I don't want you to feel bad, baby. I know why you did it. I can't explain how good it feels to know you cared about me and Kai so much, even then."

I nodded. "So why the waterworks? You know you're ugly when you cry."

"Some contractors were coming to install an outdoor playground and a tree house next week," she said with a chuckle. "I guess I wanted all the things I never knew I could have,car payments, a permanent address; I wanted a normal life."

Had she been anyone else I would have told her a beautiful lie to spare her an ugly truth.

"I say this as your mate, your husband, and the man who loves you more than life itself," I said, looking deeply into her eyes. "You're crazy."

She burst out laughing. "See what I mean?" Of course it only made her laugh harder.

"You are not all there and me I don't know how not to be a degenerate asshole of epic proportions. Individually we might be able to pass for normal on our best day but together..." Words failed me all I could do was shake my head sadly.

She was wiping tears from her face and trying to suppress her laughter. "Nuh-uh!" she protested. "We're not that bad!"

I arched a brow so dubiously that it came dangerously close to meeting my hairline. "Yes. Yes, we are. You're a God Killer. I'm an S7 Vampire Enforcer." She finally stopped laughing and admitted the truth with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, okay, that's pretty messed up."

"We can have all that though: the house, the car, your toe socks in the winter, and you can take a job at the carnival when it comes to town. We'll have a house full of children who'll go to this supernatural school. I hope they'll learn to be refined, unlike us, but even if they're as uncivilized as we are, it won't matter. We'd love them anyway. We'd be a band of perfectly matched misfits. Our life would be peaceful, and happy but Sookie, nothing we do could never pass for normal, nothing."

As if to prove my point, in came a large wolf. When I say it was large, I meant humongous. On all fours, it stood a full head over the kitchen counter. It dwarfed the largest werewolf I'd ever seen, though it was the least hairy. Its thin coat was an even gleaming gunmetal grey. Its eyes were bright green. Even given its size, it managed to move in complete silence. Its scent was almost nonexistent. Right before my eyes, it morphed into some kind of ape that was a fraction of the wolf's size. My son was already smiling and reaching his arms out. The former wolf-now-ape stood on two legs. It held Kai in one hand, stole my blood with the other, and then carried Kai off to the living room.

I looked up at my wife. "The fact that I'm not shocked by that says it all."

"Definitely," she sighed, as she came to wrap her arms around me.

I held her close and brushed my lips against hers. "Seriously though, what the fuck was that?"

It turns out the massive shifting creature was named, "Titan." He had been the one to deliver the letter to the house. There was another word that explained what he was. He was a "Walker." It was from them that weres and shape shifters descended. While those species were domesticated and grew human forms over time, walkers preferred their animal form all the time. It made them more powerful. When they wanted a human form, they chose one and they remained with them for life. Apparently, the Pythoness had found one who chose Kai. She promised one to all my children as a gift henceforth. I'm not sure why, but that felt like my comeuppance for centuries of disrespect.

The next night I found myself back in Minnesota. It was where we would stay. This time Kai came with Sookie and me. We hadn't yet found a permanent residence in the state but I was Captain of the Enforcers. I could live on site if I desired. For now that was what we did since it was convenient and safest. If any of the vampires thought it was odd I showed up to our base with a child on my hip, they were smart enough to not show it. I needed to get my case log and I had to figure out to whom I had to hand it. I was busy with that small matter of saving the world.

I walked into the Old Bat's study without knocking. Normally I at least announced myself but because of the hefty fine and incarceration she hit me with, I was going to terrorize her until the end of time, regardless of how soon that might be.

"Eric," she said, without looking up. "How I have missed your brutish and insolent behavior."

"I thought you would," I said, slouching in a chair. "What ideas do you have on preventing Armageddon?"

"None," she said, finally raising her head.

Sookie and I looked at each other, then at her.

"None, as in nothing solid, or none, as in nothing?" I asked. I could assume, but for all our sakes, I really preferred otherwise. It might allow me to be wrong and that's what I really wanted.

"The definition of none has not changed since I have been around."

Her scribe pulled out her chair and she rose nimbly to her feet. She made her way over to us, took Kai from me, and walked out of the room with him on her hip. We followed without needing to be told. Apparently, she was going through a mysterious phase after her mid-millennium crisis not too long ago. Halfway towards her library she set Kai down.

Sookie started to go to him but the Pythoness waved her hand in an elegant flourish. "Katairu," she continued, looking down at him.

When my son heard his name, he looked up. This was his first time meeting her and you would think he had seen her face everyday since he was born. That was one more thing to add to the list of questions I wanted to ask the Old Bat.

"Titan will find Amina for you if you need anything."

All my wife and I could manage was a stunned look at our son as he smiled and crawled away to explore the courthouse. It was nothing short of amazing. Kai showed an advanced understanding of things, but good luck getting him to act like it. Telling him, "No!" garnered nothing but a deceptively innocent and confused look.

"As I was saying," The Pythoness said, "I have nothing though I know of someone who does."

The guards opened the doors and we entered. The last face I expected to see was the one who sat at the table. It was Agent Latestta. This was going to get very interesting very quickly. When he saw Sookie, his heart rate spiked and his nostrils flared. When The Pythoness sat, we followed wordlessly. All the while, the human official stared. About ten seconds later, my irritation flared to aggression.

"I'm going to say this once," I said in a deceptively cordial tone. "Keep staring at my wife, and I'm going to snap you in half right before I shove your head up your ass."

"Since you already threatened to feed me my beating heart, that doesn't sound as unpleasant," he replied.

Under the table, Sookie stomped on my foot. "He's joking," she said. "Mostly." That last portion was under her breath.

"Why do you care? You're a cold blooded killer same as him."

Silence as profound as the grave hung in the air. Normally I would have said something in my wife's defense. In this instance I didn't because I wanted to kill him, slowly if possible. The more he mouthed off at the hand that was trying to save the better my odds.

"So what's your body count or have you lost track?"The agent continued.

Well, no one could say he hadn't been warned. Before his last syllable faded in the air, I was beside him. My hand was outstretched and the only person who could stop me did.

"No," my wife said, pushing against my chest. She wasn't trying to make it an order, she was begging. "Don't baby. It's okay."

I snarled at Latestta, but I let Sookie push me back.

"If we're all finished exchanging pleasantries," The Pythoness interjected "He has some information pertinent to the matter at hand."

Great; maybe Sookie would let me kill him after.

"Six months ago I was contacted by someone who had a shitload of information on "The Outfit". They had names, dates, events, safe houses, aliases, you name it." he began. "It all pointed to one person and even gave us a recent sighting."

"Me," Sookie murmured.

"Yup," he said.

"It was everything I'd been chasing my whole career. It was so perfect I knew it had to be wrong. You were never sloppy. It stood to reason that you were being set up by something worse."

"He came to me because it was I who took the initial contract," The Pythoness continued. "He trusted me. To insure his trust does not prove to be misplaced and to reciprocate, I told him the truth." I had a feeling as to what she meant but I was holding some hope. "What truth?" I asked.

"The whole truth," was her reply.

This was a "What The Fuck Moment?" Before I left, I knew The Old Bat wanted to extend a helping hand to different species, humans included, but to out a species was not something that even she wasn't allowed to do. That left the hidden aspects of the vampire's fair game for exposure, like all the hostile takeovers and the manner in which we viewed humans. The fact that we had an acceptable quota for human casualties would most likely be the first thing that was exposed. It was how the Salem Witch trial began.

"My duty is to uphold vampire law first and foremost. I have violated the sanctity of that role. I have no choice but to step down."

"Fuck me," Sookie and I both whispered under our breath.

Our show of utter shock was ignored by the Pythoness. Agent Latestta had no idea of the gravity of events that were unfolding before him. The oaf was watching Vampire history being made and all he did was look around confused.

"I, Domina Aureliana Maximus, of the House Quintilianus, being of sound mind and body, issue my final Executive Act as the Law of Vampire —"

"That's not funny Old Lady!" I warned. "Don't you fucking dare do what I think you're about to!"

She ignored me "I here by forfeit my role as the Law of the Undead. I name Ainerick, of Jylland, progeny of Galen, The Visigoth, as my Successor."

Apparently, The Old Bat had lost her mind since I'd been gone. While Sookie came to me, I laughed because this had to be some kind of bad joke.

"You're joking," I said when no one else found humor in this. "You have to be."

The silence continued and all eyes were on then, it looked like they were all screwed. What happened to this world would no longer be of any consequences to me and mine. When Kai asked, Sookie and I could say we tried. I rose to my feet and pulled my stunned wife with me. We were heading for the door. I was thinking of the fastest back to Americ.

If ever I got high enough to take on such a role, it wouldn't be now. I was ready to fight, but not rule an entire race of self-serving creatures during a dire crisis that made vampires so much more volatile. A golden-winged bear blocked the door. The pose wasn't threatening. Looking at it, I could tell it somehow wanted me to slow down and reconsider.

That was shocking as hell but what was even more so was the fact it smelled like The Pythoness. This beast mirrored her. It was majestic, powerful, but elegant. The Old Bat had a walker. That was how she knew where to find Kai such a rare thing. She really was blind, yet this was how she managed to track me with impeccable accuracy.

Again, I had to laugh. I mean, what else could you do when faced with overwhelming odds? This new bit of information wasn't so bad. It answered a question that had been nagging at me for the past two hundred-odd years. If she heard me, she didn't show it. She didn't confirm or deny anything, but she didn't have to.

"Niall sees what is to come same as I. Were he alone, I could contend with him but with Breandan, their collaborative sight is keener. From where I sit, I cannot see," she said. "I need to manipulate the holes in my limitations and that includes a drastic change, a look from the outside in."

"I'm going to be farther on the outside and I'll be turning a blind eye, no pun intended," I quipped. "So like I said, you're fucked'"

"Katairu will die," she said blandly. "Your maker, your sister, and your wife, they as well as countless others will not survive if Niall wins."

I stilled. I expected fury but there was so much fear bouncing between my wife and I that anger had no room to grow.

"You're lying," Sookie said. "We'll survive this. We will."

She shook her head, sadly. "No. I saw his fate while he was in your womb. As things stood then he didn't live out his first year. Just now, I looked and I saw nothing to the contrary."

Tears escaped my wife's eyes. She was doing her best to keep her pain contained but it was useless. We were both suffering from the same crippling fear. I pulled her to me but I had no words of comfort to offer her.

"The nether will rise and the heavens will fall," she repeated. "The darkness will come and it will devour us all, all of us, if Niall wins there will be no place that will go untouched, nothing will be left. There is no way you can forsake this world and save your son."

"What do I do?" I asked.

"While you have not declared war, it is upon you and you must fight as if your enemy is at your door. We must go on the offensive because we have no defense as of yet. Hit them fast and hit them hard. Agent, Latestta knows where to begin targeting."

"How far does your reach go?" I asked the human.

"Usually very far but the fact that I am the only one who knows the truth complicates things. I'll need man power and supplies I can't justify on the books."

"But you can do it?" Sookie asked. "Tell them it's "The Outfit," tell them you're close and their getting more and more dangerous."

"Unless you blow up a landmark and kill a lot of civilians, I can't make anyone care anymore."

I was sure he was being sarcastic but the contemplative look on my face told him I was already considering it.

"If that was a factor the Prince accounted for then he miscalculated. Either way it is a mistake. Keeping him guessing is the best option. That one thing will render a fortuneteller useless. We cannot see a course until it has been decided."

The Old Bat waved her hand and one of her scribes pushed a laptop in front of me. It was the program that held a record of every vampire in the New World. This was a page of the Royals. It had everything; their ages, countries of origin, and their power rankings.

"Abolish emanative powers and institute Martial Law. Call upon every King and Queen in every Territory. Declare open war on the Fae, and assemble your troops."

I gave her a look that called her all the names I wanted to call her but didn't have the time. There was nothing vampires loved more than power. What she was suggesting took Royals and made them generals, needless to say there was going to be quite a bit of resistance.

"How am I supposed to do all that? How do I go from the Law to Emperor? The transition, if it's successful, won't be smooth and I don't have time to tame a civil uprising."

Sookie wrapped her arms around my waist. "If it's Kai or them, I choose Kai. They can get down, or lay I'll lay them the fuck down."

"I suggest we employ guerrilla tactics, strike, and retreat," Latestta added.

Sin Eaters and the Fae were a well-orchestrated coalition. If there was no pattern to follow, they wouldn't know where to start. It gave us an advantage, not a great one, but an edge all the same. When you were going into a fight with one hand tied behind your back, you appreciated anything you could get.


End file.
